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The    West    Sussex     Coast 


THE  SUSSEX  COAST 


UNIFORM  WITH   THIS  VOLUME, 


THE    NORFOLK    AND    SUFFOLK   COAST 
By   W.    A.    Dutt 

THE  SOUTH  DEVON   &    DORSET  COAST 

By  Sidney  Heath 

/ 

THE    CORNWALL    COAST 
By   Arthur  L.    Satmon 

THE  KENT  COAST 
By  A.  D.  Lewis 

THE  SOUTH    WALES  COAST 
By  Ernest  Rhys 

THE    NORMANDT  COAST 
By  Charles  Merk 


.    FISHS^ 


BEACIIY    HEAD. 


From  a  water-colour  drawing  by  Edith  B.  Hannah  made  on  May  15,  1911,  durine 
the  fog  in  which  the  steamers  Nyroca  and  Charlton  collided. 


The  Sussex  Coast 


By  Ian  C.  Hannah^  M.A. 

Author  of  "Eastern  Asia;  a  History" 


Illustrated  by  Sdith  *Brand  Hannah 


\  Addpbi    (m   TLjvacejAic  ',    ,'  " ' 


T.    Fisher    Unwin 

London :     *Adel$hi    Terrace 

Leipsic:  Inselstrasse   20 

797,? 


rigrftfo  reserved.) 


To 

A    SUSSEX   WORTHY 
WHO   BESTS   IN    A   DISTANT    LAND  \ 

TO   MY   BROTHER 
WHO  FELL   FIGHTING   THAT   SUSSEX  AND   SOUTH   AFRICA 

MIGHT    SHARE    A   FLAG  ', 

THIS    WORK    IS    DEDICATED 

WITH   AFFECTION    AND    WITH   REVERENCE. 


333389 


ROAD  MAPS  OF  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

THE  country  along  the  Sussex  shore  abounds  in 
cul-de-sacs  and  sometimes,  from  the  presence 'of 
unsuspected  streams  (particularly  on  the  maritime 
plain),  the  unwary  wayfarer  may  find  it  necessary 
to  retrace  his  steps  and  get  further  than  ever  from 
the  village  where  he  would  be.  Reliable  maps  are 
really  indispensable,  particularly  for  the  motorist 
exploring  the  remoter  villages.  The  country 
people,  though  invariably  good-natured,  are  usually 
very  vague  in  their  sense  of  direction  and  distance. 
Even  in  these  days  there  are  plenty  who  have 
never  been  more  than  a  few  miles  from  their 
homes. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  the  Ordnance  Maps 
for  which  the  surveying  is  done  by  the  Royal 
Engineers,  and  whose  original  purpose  (as  the 
name  implies)  was  to  facilitate  the  transport  of 
big  guns,  are  the  best,  and  that  others  are  only 
good  so  far  as  they  resemble  them.  They  may  be 
had  in  convenient  sheets  folding  to  go  into  a 
pocket  and  the  scales  of  one  inch  to  a  mile,  one 
inch  to  two  miles,  and  one  inch  to  four  miles,  may 
be  recommended  respectively  to  the  pedestrian, 
the  cyclist,  and  the  motorist. 

The  Ordnance  Survey  Maps  for  the  Sussex  Coast, 
are  these  : — 

7 


8       ROAD  MAPS  OF  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 
•  >'•  • 

*-'  >>*>•)•>*•>**«'    •>   >  »a* 

<"•*. ,'  >  I  >rt<2 '  /  °*  J    i  »•     : 

One  mile  to  iin  inch,  large  series,  27"  x  18"  paper 

(flat  or  folded),  Is.  6d. ;  mounted  (flat  or  folded), 
2s.,  cut  in  sections  and  mounted  to  fold,  2s.  6d. 
(coloured  edition  only).  Sheets  Nos.  135,  136,  137, 
138. 

One  mile  to  an  inch,  small  series,  outline  or  with 
hills  shaded  or  coloured,  Nos.  316,  318,  319,  320,  321, 
331,  332,  333,  334,  prices  Is.,  Is.  6d.,  and  2s.  These 
may  be  had  flat  or  folded. 

One  mile  to  an  inch  district  maps  (Brighton  and 
Worthing),  Is.  6d.  flat  or  folded  paper,  2s.  mounted 
to  fold,  and  2s.  6d.  cut  in  sections  to  fold.  (Hastings 
and  Bexhill),  Is.  6d.  flat  or  folded  paper,  2s.  mounted 
to  fold,  and  2s.  6d.  cut  in  sections  to  fold. 

Two  miles  to  an  inch,  coloured  edition,  Nos.  38, 
39,  and  40,  prices  Is.  6d.,  2s.,  and  2s.  6d.,  flat  or 
folded.  Also  published  on  the  layer  system  at  the 
same  prices. 

Four  miles  to  an  inch,  coloured  edition,  Nos.  19 
and  23,  20  and  24,  combined  sheets,  flat  or  folded, 
prices  Is.  6d.,  2s.,  and  2s.  6d.,  and  uncoloured,  flat 
sheets  only,  price  Is.  6d. 

Four  miles  to  an  inch  (Sussex),  Is.  flat  or  folded, 
cut  in  sections,  price  2s. 

Ten  miles  to  an  inch,  sheet  No.  12,  coloured 
edition,  flat  or  folded,  prices  Is.,  Is.  6d.,  and  2s., 
and  uncoloured,  flat  sheet  only,  price  Is. 

The  prices  are  all  net. 

Mr.  T.  Fisher  Unwin  is  the  sole  wholesale  agent 
for  these  maps,  of  which  a  special  catalogue  is 
issued.  They  maybe  procured  from  any  bookseller. 

I.  C.  H. 


PREFACE 


To  a  Sussexian  born  and  bred  the  writing  of  this 
little  book  has  been  wholly  a  labour  of  love. 
Following  the  lines  of  earlier  volumes  of  the  series 
it  deals  chiefly  with  historical  and  literary  associa- 
tions, and  it  aims  at  being  rather  a  readable 
account  of  the  district  than  strictly  a  guide-book. 
Each  place  so  far  as  possible  is  treated  chrono- 
logically rather  than  topographically,  but  for  the 
benefit  of  those  using  this  work  as  a  guide  when 
actually  visiting  Sussex  a  full  index  is  provided. 

An  attempt  to  enumerate  all  the  works  I  have 
consulted  would  almost  involve  transcribing  the 
catalogue  of  the  Sussex  Archaeological  Library  at 
Lewes ;  obligations  sufficiently  definite  are  ac- 
knowledged in  the  text,  and  to  the  following  works 
a  general  debt  of  gratitude  may  in  addition 
be  expressed :  Sussex  Archaeological  Collections 
(S.A.C.);  Sussex  Record  Society's  volumes;  Hors- 
field's  History  and  Topography  of  Sussex  (1835) ; 
Victoria  History  (particularly  the  splendid  his- 
torical articles  by  F.  L.  Salzmann  and  architectural 
ones  by  P.  M.  Johnston) ;  Hadrian  Allcrof  t's  Earth- 
work of  England ;  Miss  Arnold  Foster's  Studies  in 
Church  Dedications ;  Chancellor  Parish's  Diction- 
ary of  the  Sussex  Dialect ;  C.  Thomas-Stanford's 
Sussex  in  the  Great  Civil  War.  A  word  of  sincere 


10  PREFACE 

appreciation  is  due  to  the  parish  clergy  for  their 
care  of  the  buildings  entrusted  to  them,  for  nearly 
always  leaving  them  open  for  wayfarers  and  in 
some  cases  providing  printed  notes  for  their  guid- 
ance, to  be  taken  away  on  dropping  a  penny  into 
the  alms-box.  The  condition  and  accessibility  of 
our  churches  will  now  compare  favourably  with 
those  of  any  other  country  of  Europe. 

I  have  made  great  efforts  to  ensure  absolute 
accuracy,  but  if  I  have  fallen  into  any  errors  I 
should  deem  it  a  real  kindness  if  some  one  will 
point  them  out. 

I.  C.  H. 

FEBNBOYD,  FOREST  Row. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.         CHICHESTEK  AND   VICINITY  17 


II.  THE   FAR   WEST         .  Y                fc                 .    '            .50 

III.  THE   MANHOOD           .  .                .                .                 .65 

IV.  BOGNOR        .  .                .                 .                 .                 .82 

x"^ 

V.  ARUNDEL   AND   LITTLEHAMPTON       .  .                 .    104 

VI.  VILLAGES   ON   THE   PLAIN    ....    122 

VII.  WORTHING  ......   132 

VIII.  STEYNING    .  .                .                .-                .                 .    146 
IX.  SHOREHAM  .                .                .                .                .                .   159 

X.  BRIGHTON    ......    174 

XI.  THE   SOUTH   DOWNS  ....   206 

XII.  LEWES     .  ...    225 
XIII  NEWHAVEN                   r                                                                     .    246 


12  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PASE 

XIV.  SEAFOBD     .  ,                .                                 .  261 

XV.  EASTBOURNE  .    *           .  V               *  .    276 

XVI.  PEVENSEY  ,                 .  .                 .  .   292 

XVII.  HEBSTMONCEUX   AND   BEXHILL  .                 .  .    311 

XVIII.  HASTINGS  .  .                .  .                .  .   332 

XIX.  WINCHELSEA  .                 .  .                 .  .    360 

XX.  BYE               .  .                 .  .                 .  .    378 

INDEX  .    401 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


BE  ACHY  HEAD  .  .  ..  .  .  Frontispiece 

From  a  water-colour  drawing  by  Edith  B.  Hannah  made  on 
May  15, 1911,  during  the  fog  in  which  the  steamers  "Nyroca  "  and 
"Charlton"  collided. 


FROM  PHOTOGRAPHS 

FACING  PAGE 

CATHEDRAL  FROM  DEANERY,  CHICHESTER   .  .  .  .26 

Hannah.        ,  _,- 

CATHEDRAL  AFTER  THE  FALL  OF  THE  SPIRE — 

SOUTH  TRANSEPT  CLEARED  OP  RUINS  ;  AND  NAVE  AND  SOUTH 
TRANSEPT  IMMEDIATELY  AFTER  THE  FALL        .  .  .30 

BELL   TOWER  THROUGH  THE  RUINS;  AND  EXTERIOR  PROM 
NORTH-EAST         ,  .         »  .  *         "  »  .  .44 

These  four  kindly  supplied  by  C.  Cave,  Esq.,  Ditcham  Park. 

BOSHAM  CHURCH         .          ,  .  .       .  -.  .  .60 

ARUNDEL,  SWANBOURNE  LAKE          ,  .  .  .  .  116 

By  W.  P.  Marsh,  Chichester. 

SOMPTINQ  CHURCH     .  .  "        .          ....  142 

NEW  SHOREHAM  CHURCH      .        . .,  •'...       ....  164 

BRIGHTON   PARISH   CHURCH   BEFORE   THE   NEW  CHANCEL  WAS 
BUILT 192 

POTNINGB  CHURCH     .          .          .          .          .          .          .218 

13 


14  LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PACING  PAGE 

LEWES  CASTLE  KEEP  -  ...  .  .  .  .228 

By  F.  C.  Cooper,  Eastbourne. 

SOUTHOVEB  CHURCH,  LEWES,  AND  INFIRMARY  CHAPEL,   LEWES 
PRIORY     .          .          .  .          ;          .  .          .234 

Hannah. 


THE  SEVEN  SISTERS  .  .  .  .        ~'».          -266 

By  Tester  Bros.,  Bedford. 

CUCKMERE  VALLEY     *          .  .  .  .          .f   "       .270 

By  Tester  Bros.,  Seaford. 

DOWNS  ABOVE  EASTBOURNE   .  .  .  ...          .  278 

By  F.  C.  Cooper,  Eastbourne. 

WANNOCK         ........  286 

By  F.  O.  Cooper,  Eastbourne. 

LONG  MAN  OF  WILMINGTON  .  .  .  .  .  .  288 

By  F.  C.  Cooper,  Eastbourne. 

PEVENBEY  CASTLE  COURT  AND  VIEW  OF  BAY  FROM  WALLS         .  298 
Hannah. 

HERSTMONCEUX  PARK  .  '."'     -    .       ' '  •> V-         ,"'       .312 

By  F.  C.  Cooper,  Eastbourne. 

WEST  DEAN  PRIEST  HOUSE  AND  CHURCH  .  .  .  •        .  312 

Hannah. 

OLD  TOWN,  HASTINGS,  AND  FISHING  FLEET  (2  VIEWS)     .  .  336 

Hannah. 

DORMITORY,  BATTLE  ABBEY      .       .          ,  .          .  .364 

Hannah. 

RUINS  OF  FRANCISCAN  CHURCH,  WINCHELSEA        ..          .  .  354 

Hannah, 

CHURCH  AT  WINCHELSBA,  INTERIOR  (2  VIEWS)      .  «  ,  370 

Hannah. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS  15 

FACING  PAGE 

CHUECH  AT  WINCHELBEA,  EXTEBIOB  (2  VIEWS)     .          .  .374 

Hannah. 

LAND  GATE  AT  BYE  AND  THE  BOTHEB      .  .  .          .382 

Hannah. 

CHURCH  AT  BYE  (2  VIEWS)  .  .  .  .  .  .388 

Hannah. 


FROM   LINE   DRAWINGS   BY  EDITH 
BRAND   HANNAH 

PAGE 

CHICHESTEB  FROM  CANAL      .           .           .  .  .  .17 

CAPITALS  IN  CATHEDRAL  PRESBYTERY         .  ,  .  .29 

BOSHAM  (WITH  BEPTILE  HEAD  IN  CHURCH)  .  ,  .50 

BOSHAM  IN  BAYEUX  TAPESTRY         .           .  .  .59 

SIDLESHAM  MILL        »           .         ', .  -       .  .  .  .65 

BLAKE'S  COTTAGE  AT  FELPHAM       .           .  .  .  .82 

ARUNDEL  (WITH  TOWN  ARMS)           .           .  .  .  .104 

BUSTINGTON  MILL  -    »         '  ,          ...          .  .  .  .  122 

BROADWATEB  CHURCH           .           .           .  .  .  .132 

STEYNING,  CHURCH  STREET             .          .  .  ,  .  146 

STEYNING,  NOBMAN  CAPITALS           .          .  .  .  .147 

SHOBEHAM  BBIDGE  (WITH  TOWN  ABMS)      .  .  ;  .  159 

BBIGHTON  OLD  FISH  MARKET         .          .  .  .  .174 

DEVIL'S  DYKE  (WITH  PYEOOMBE  SHEEP-HOOK)  .  .  .206 

BABBICAN  OP  LEWES  CASTLE  (WITH  TOWN  ABMS)  .  .  .225 


16  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

NEWHAVEN  HARBOUR  *          V          .  .  .  .246 

SEAPORD  HEAD  (WITH  OLD  FIGURE-HEAD  AT  STAR  INN, 
ALFRISTON)  .  .  .  .  .  .261 

EASTBOURNE  OLD  PRIEST  HOUSE  (WITH  CORBEL  IN  CHURCH)      .  276 
PEVENSEY  CASTLE  GATEWAY  (WITH  SEAL  OF  THE  PORT)  .  .  292 

LANDING  OF  THE  CONQUEROR  .  .  .  .-         .  296 

From  "  Estoire  de  Seint  JEdward  le  Rei." 

OLD  YEW  AT  CROWHURST  (AND  PELHAM  BUCKLE  ON  TOWER 
DOORWAY)  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  311 

COFFIN  SLAB  AT  BEXHILL     .  .  '.  .  .  .  327 

HASTINGS  CASTLE  (WITH  TOWN  ARMS)         .          ,,  ,   :  .  332 

OLD  TOWN  HALL  AT  WINCHELSEA  (WITH  SEAL  OF  THE  PORT)  .  360 

STRAND  GATE  AT  WINCHELSEA         .  .  .  ,  .  367 

GENERAL  VIEW  OF  RYE  (WITH  ARMS  OF  TOWN)     .  .  .  378 

END   PAPERS 

MAPS  OF  EAST  AND  WEST  SUSSEX.  AREA  THAT  WOULD  BE 
OVERFLOWED  AT  HIGH  TIDE  IF  ALL  BARRIERS  WERE 
REMOVED  DOTTED  (FROM  F.  L.  SALZMANN  IN  S.A.C.) 

SCENES  FROM  BAYEUX  TAPESTRY. 

PLANS 

CHICHESTER  (WITH  CITY  CROSS  AND  ARMS  OF  THE  SEE)  .  .    19 

PEVENSEY       .  .295 


The   Sussex   Coast 


I.     Chichefter  &  Vicinity 


I  From   the  Canal 

HIS  city  has  been  the  home  of  British 
kings,  who  founded  it  long  centuries 
ago,  of  Roman  officers  who  walled  it 
round,  of  Saxon  sovereigns  who  gave 
its  name.  Danes  traded,  Normans  ruled 
and  built  in  its  midst.  One  of  the  most  lovable  of 
our  mediaeval  saints*  lies  enshrined  in  its  Cathe- 
dral Church ;  after  another  of  its  bishops  f 
Chancery  Lane  is  called ;  a  third  was  the  brilliant 
writer  of  The  Represser  of  Overmuch  Blaming  of 
the  Clergy ;  |  yet  a  fourth  one  of  the  most  modern 
and  interesting  of  all  Tudor  prelates.  §  By  Edward 
III.  it  was  made  a  wool  staple  town  ;  till  the  Civil 
Wars  it  was  famed  for  its  needles;  Elizabeth 

*  Richard  of  Wych,  Bishop  1245-1253. 
t  Ralph  Neville,   Bishop   1224-1244 ;   became  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, 1226. 

|  Reginald  Pecock,  Bishop  1450-1459. 
§  Robert  Sherburne,  Bishop  1508-1536. 

a 


•18  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

visited  it-  and  is  supposed  to  have  called  it  Little 
London,*  because  it  so  exactly  resembled  the 
metropolis  (back-handed  compliment  indeed!);  it 
supplied  a  vessel  to  fight  the  Spanish  Armada ; 
Cavalier  and  Roundhead  struggled  strenuously  for 
its  possession;  one  of  the  regicides  was  a  respected 
citizen ;  after  the  Restoration  troops  were  wanted 
to  secure  its  acquiescence  in  that,  to  Carlyle, 
mournfulest  event;  Monmouth  was  heartily  wel- 
comed by  its  people.  A  famous  eighteenth-century 
poet  lived  most  of  his  life  within  its  walls.!  The 
first  man  ever  killed  in  a  railway  accident  has 
his  memorial  in  its  mother  church.  J  The  history 
of  England  is  with  us  as  we  wander  through  the 
streets  of  the  old  capital  of  South  Saxony.  No 
upstart  city,  no  town  that  could  be  built  in  a  day  ! 

Four  streets  leading  to  its  centre  from  the  gates 
that  no  longer  exist  cut  the  city  into  four  portions 
and  mark  it  with  the  sign  of  the  cross ;  they  are 
called  after  the  four  quarters  of  heaven.  Hors- 
field,  the  historian  of  Sussex  (1835),  is  perfectly 
correct  in  his  sage  remark,  "  of  the  antiquity  of 
the  town  no  doubt  can  be  entertained ! " 

The  site  of  the  city  is  but  a  few  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea,  perhaps  when  chosen  it  was  as 
near  the  harbour  as  was  possible  for  the  inhabi- 
tants to  get  and  still  keep  dry.  The  Lavant 
(which  Holinshed  calls  the  Deel),  whose  inter- 
mittent waters  evidently  come  largely  from  a 
siphon-acting  reservoir  under  the  Downs,  seems 
to  have  divided  its  stream  so  as  to  surround  the 
site  of  the  ancient  entrenchment,  and  perhaps 
influenced  its  shape ;  except  on  the  north-east  the 

*  A  street  still  bears  the  name, 
t  William  Collins,  1721-1759. 

+  William  Huskisson,  1770-1830,  the  well-known  states- 
man. 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY 


19 


Plan    of    Cbichefter 


STOCKBRIDCE 


1.  Paradife  .  ' Cathedral  N.   Cloifters  7.  5.  Faith's  Chapel    ffite) 

on  the  other  fides  &Deanery 

i.Bell  Tover  V.ReJident'mry 

3.  S.  Richard's   U/a/K  IO.Cba.niry 

t.  Palace 'Gate  ll.Prebendal  School 

5.  Canon  Gate  12  City  Crofs 
'  Clofe 


20  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

stream  may  have  been  close  to  the  works,  which 
enclose  a  most  irregular  circle.     From  the  present 
character  of  the  defences  it  seems  that  the  Celtic 
(or  possibly  pre-Celtic)   earthwork  still  remains, 
faced  with  masonry  towards  the  open  country  by 
the  Romans.     At  intervals  they  buttressed  it  with 
their  characteristic  apsidal  towers  for  enfilading 
fire,  several  of  which  remain.     Thus  towards  the 
outside  the  walls  present  solid  masonry,  mostly  of 
flint ;  towards  the  city  grass-grown  slopes.     This 
arrangement  may  also  be   found  in  the  purely 
Roman  city  walls,  rectangular  in  form,  at  Camulo- 
dunum  (Colchester)  and  Venta  Icenorum  (Caistor 
St.   Edmund),   while  at  Pompeii  in  place  of  an 
earthen  slope  are  continuous  steep  steps  formed 
by  each  course  of  stonework  receding  from  that 
below.     Though  the  position  of  the  Celto- Roman 
defences  has  not  been  interfered  with  (for  it  never 
became  necessary,  as  at  York  and  Lincoln,  to  in- 
crease the  area  enclosed),  by  far  the  greater  part 
of  the  existing  masonry  is  probably  mediaeval.     In 
1339,  for  instance,  the  walls  underwent  some  sort  of 
restoration,  the  Bishop,  Dean  and  Chapter  repair- 
ing the  parts  that  skirted  their  respective  dwell- 
ings ;  but  this  work  would  appear  not  to  have  been 
very  thoroughly  done,  for  in  1377-1378  the  King 
granted  licence    to    the    mayor    and    citizens    to 
compel  the  Cicestrians  to  contribute   to   the   cost 
of  rebuilding  the  ruinous  walls  and  making  a  new 
ditch  fifty  feet  wide  outside,  to  be  filled  with  river 
water.     One  or  two  houses  were  allowed  to  be 
built  (as  at  Jericho)  on  the  wall,  and  among  them 
was  the    old   Deanery,   whose  substructions  still 
exist,   projecting   from  the    southern    side.*     On 

*  The  Deanery  postern  was  made  by  Seffrid  IT.  when 
Dean  in  order  more  conveniently  to  reach  his  orchards  and 
gardens,  Henry  II.  granting  him  permission. 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  21 

the  north  the  walls,  shaded  by  large  elms,  form 
public  walks  ;  in  places  modern  masonry  is  em- 
ployed to  reduce  the  width  of  the  earthen  banks 
and  so  make  room  for  roads ;  elsewhere  the  walls 
are  in  private  gardens,  chiefly  those  of  the  Cathe- 
dral dignitaries  and  of  the  residence  called  Cawley 
Priory  (p.  42). 

Roman  foundations  and  mosaic  pavements  have 
been  found  within  the  walls  of  the  Cathedral,  and 
in  fact  all  over  the  city,  which  evidently  became  in 
Imperial  days  the  home  of  a  cultured  and  fairly 
wealthy  community.  It  was  called  Regnum  from 
the  Celtic  tribe  whose  capital  it  was.  An  earthen 
aqueduct  with  pipe  seems  to  have  brought  water 
from  the  north-east.  The  cemetery  was  beside  the 
Stane  Street,  outside  the  Eastern  Gate ;  in  1895  a 
quantity  of  sepulchral  pottery  was  found  there. 
A  large  graveyard  exists  to-day,  and  is  called  Litten, 
or  place  of  the  dead,  a  common  Sussex  term.  In 
North  Street,  under  the  portico  of  the  eighteenth- 
century  Guildhall,  generously  restored  by  the  Duke 
of  Richmond  to  the  city  after  a  long  sojourn  at 
Goodwood,  is  a  slab  of  Purbeck  marble*  which  is 
inscribed — the  missing  letters  conjecturally  sup- 
plied in  italics — 

*  It  was  dug  up  in  1723  under  the  place  where  it  is 
now  preserved  ;  the  surface  is  defaced  and  the  text  is  by  no 
means  certain.  The  end  of  the  fifth  line  (where  the  marble 
is  badly  broken)  may  have  read  AVG  IN  BRIT  which  is  the 
version  given  in  Monumenta  Historica  Britannica  (1848), 
and  is  much  easier  to  translate  :  it  also  has  the  high  authority 
of  Pauly-Wissowa.  "  A  sacris  "  and  "  sodales"  in  line  7  are 
are  of  course  alternate  suggestions. 

The  marble  seems  to  have  come  from  the  Purbeck  peninsula 
of  Dorset,  but  it  has  usually  been  called  Sussex  marble,  from 
the  quarries  near  Petworth .  The  latter  is  composed  of  much 
larger  univalves  than  the  former,  but  they  are  sometimes  not 
easy  to  distinguish. 


22  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

JVEPTVNO    ET    MINERVAE 

TEMPLVM 

PRO    SALVTE    DOMVS    DIVINAE 

EX    AVCTORITATJE-     TIB    CLAVD 

COtflDVBNI    R    -LEG  AT    AGN    BRIT 

COLLEGIUM    FABROR    ET    QVl    IN    EO 


^  DSD    DONANTE    AREAM 

(SOD  ALES 

PFDENTE    PVDENTINI    FIL 


The  native  king  (spelt  Cogidumnus)  is  mentioned 
by  Tacitus  (Agricola,  xiv.).  Efforts  have  been 
made  to  identify  the  donor  of  the  site  with  St. 
Paul's  friend,  Pudens,  mentioned  with  Linus  and 
Claudia  in  2  Tim.  iv.  21,  and  with  the  Pudens  of 
Martial's  epigrams  who  married  a  Briton  named 
Claudia,  likewise  to  prove  that  St.  Paul  himself 
once  trod  the  streets  of  Regnum.  All  this  would  be 
gratifying  in  the  highest  degree  if  only  it  could  be 
shown  to  be  true,  but  the  evidence  is  not  by  any 
means  overwhelming  !  Holinshed,  in  what  he 
calls  an  "  impertinent  discourse,"  gives  us  an 
account  of  Pudens  and  Claudia,  but  without  the 
Chichester  connection,  the  inscription  not  being 
known  in  his  day.  Another  inscription,  of  Nero's 
reign,  has  been  found  near  by,  but  it  is  formal  and 
without  special  interest. 

The  Romans  left,  the  Saxons  came,  Regnum  re- 
mained. JElla  who  founded  the  Saxon  kingdom, 
had  three  sons,  Cissa,  Wlencing  and  Cymen,  and 
when  he  came  to  Britain  in  477,  as  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle  relates,  he  may  probably  have  landed 
about  eight  miles  off  by  the  inlet][generally  known 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  23 

as  Pagham  Harbour  (p.  72).  So  little  however  did 
our  sport-loving  fathers  appreciate  the  life  of  towns 
that  they  did  not  occupy  the  city  that  was  ready 
to  their  use,  but  pitched  their  tents  without  it  on 
the  southern  side  amid  the  muddy  meadows  by 
the  Lavant,  and  their  settlement  there  took  its 
name  from  a  bridge  of  stakes.  Stockbridge  still 
gives  its  title  to  the  hundred,  though  the  place  has 
practically  ceased  to  exist.  Kingsham,  a  modern- 
ised house  with  some  unimportant  mediaeval  frag- 
ments, marks  the  spot  where  lived  the  king. 

In  later  days  the  Saxons  certainly  moved  within 
the  city,  but  nothing  that  they  built  there  seems  to 
remain.  The  town  became  known  however  as 
Cisseceaster  (probably  the  camp  of  Cissa,  though 
this  has  not  been  proved) ;  the  older  name,  Regnum, 
was  discarded. 

The  Danes'  first  visits  to  Sussex  were  for  pur- 
poses of  plundering  the  Saxons  by  fire  and  sword, 
and  in  895  we  learn  from  the  Chronicle  that  the 
Cicestrians  fought  and  routed  a  party  of  these 
lawless  marauders  who  had  been  foraging  in  the 
West.  The  site  of  this  encounter  was,  according 
to  local  tradition,  at  Kingly  Bottom,  a  beautiful 
combe  of  the  Downs  just  beyond  the  quiet  little 
village  of  West  Stoke,  famed  for  its  magnificent 
yew-trees  and  redolent  of  memories  of  the  past 
with  traces  of  round  British  huts,  a  trackway  and 
imposing  tumuli,  some  of  which  recent  excavation 
has  shown  to  be  of  Neolithic  age.  Over  the  flat 
land  between  this  place  and  the  city,  buried  among 
woods  or  crossing  Goodwood  Park,  extending  for 
many  miles  and  not  very  easy  to  trace,  are  earth- 
works obviously  intended  to  protect  Chichester  in 
case  of  attack  from  the  Downs.  They  are  elabor- 
ately described  by  Richard  Gough  in  his  edition  of 


24  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

Camden  (1806) ;  he  thought  they  were  dug  by  the 
Romans,  but  probably  they  are  earlier.  Only 
extensive  excavation,  and  perhaps  not  that,  could 
really  decide  the  point.  Gough  also  gives  a  most 
interesting  description  of  Kingly  Bottom,  with  a 
section  of  the  large  tumuli  on  the  Downs  above, 
where  it  is  fabled  that  Danish  chieftains  rest. 

Later  on  the  Danes  sought  to  get  their  plunder  by 
peaceful  trading,  and  a  little  church  near  the  City 
Cross,  by  the  old  market,  dedicated  to  their  patron 
saint,  once  their  enemy,  was  almost  undoubtedly 
founded  by  them.  It  rests  upon  Roman  founda- 
tions and  is  extremely  small ;  in  the  south  wall  is 
a  narrow  door  of  early  Norman  type,  but  the 
building  is  now  largely  modernised.  There  is  a 
fine  old  chest  carved  with  mitres,  croziers,  the 
arms  of  the  see,  the  Annunciation,  and  so  on,  dated 
XLVEB  (1603).  Its  patron  saint,  Olaf  (or  Olave) 
the  Thick,  was  a  famous  Norseman  who  had  spent 
some  time  in  England  fighting  for  Ethelred  the 
Redeless  and  destroying  London  Bridge  in  opera- 
tions against  the  Danes,  victories  over  whom 
during  that  reign  are  still  commemorated  by  Hock 
Monday.  His  valiant  actions  on  behalf  of  the 
Faith  in  his  own  kingdom  of  Norway  are  set  forth 
in  one  of  the  most  delightful  of  Icelandic  sagas. 
"He  ransacked  men's  ways  of  heeding  Christ's 
faith,  and  wherever  he  deemed  they  came  short 
he  taught  them  right  manners ;  and  if  there  were 
any  who  would  not  leave  off  heathendom  he  laid 
such  penalties  upon  them  that  some  he  drove 
away  from  the  land,  some  he  let  maim  of  hand  or 
foot,  or  stung  their  eyes  out,  some  he  let  hang  or 
hew  down,  and  none  did  he  let  go  unpunished 
who  would  not  serve  God.  In  this  manner  fared 
he^about  all  that  folk-land  ;  and  he  punished  with 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  25 

even  hand  mighty  and  unmighty."  Instead  of 
telling  certain  people  in  plain  language  that  they 
were  liars,  he  "  answered  little  and  was  rather 
cross-grained,  deeming  that  he  wotted  that  other 
things  were  truer  than  that  which  was  now  set 
forth."  His  strenuous  methods  of  dealing  with 
dissentients  were  by  no  means  universally  ap- 
proved, nor  were  his  rude  Norse  subjects  as  respect- 
ful to  the  Christian  preachers  as  they  should  have 
been.  "Then  stood  the  bishop  up  in  his  choir- 
cope,  with  a  mitre  on  his  head  and  a  staff  in  his 
hand "  and  "  set  forth  the  Faith  to  the  bonders." 
But  Thord  of  the  big  belly  scoffingly  replied,  "  Much 
sayeth  he,  the  horned  one  yonder,  who  hath  a  staff 
in  hand,  the  upper  end  whereof  is  crooked  after 
the  fashion  of  a  wether's  horn."  Eventually  his 
zeal  on  behalf  of  the  White  Christ  cost  Olaf  his 
life ;  in  1030  he  was  slain  in  battle ;  but  soon 
his  repentant  subjects  realised  that  he  had  been 
in  truth  a  holy  man,  and  the  great  Cathedral  of 
Trondhjem  rose  among  the  Norwegian  forests  to 
enshrine  his  relics.  Just  north  and  just  south  of 
London  Bridge  was  a  similar  settlement  of  com- 
mercial Danes,  whose  memory  is  also  preserved  by 
churches  dedicated  to  St.  Olaf,  and  to  another 
Scandinavian  saint,  Magnus  the  Martyr  of  Orkney. 
The  Rape  of  Chichester  was  granted  by  the 
Conqueror  with  that  of  Arundel  to  Roger  of  Mont- 
gomery, who  seems  to  have  given  the  south-west 
quarter  of  the  city  to  the  Church,  to  which  some 
part  of  it  may  have  belonged  before.*  The  south - 

•:  William  of  Albini,  who  married  Queen  Adeliza,  widow  of 
Henry  I.,  received  with  her  the  confiscated  Chichester 
property  of  the  Montgomery  family,  and  he  formally  con- 
firmed this  gift  for  the  souls  of  his  ancestors  and  the  remis- 
sion of  his  sins,  a  purpose  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  was  duly 
achieved. 


26  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

east  quarter,  called  the  Pallant,  was  recognised  as 
belonging  to  the  Primate,  and  it  still  retains  its 
arrangement  of  four  streets  meeting  in  the  centre, 
a  miniature  of  the  city  itself.  A  series  of  archi- 
episcopal  peculiars  connected  the  Pallant  and  Pag- 
ham  with  the  Diocese  of  Canterbury  itself.  In 
the  north-east  section  Roger  built  or  rather  dug  a 
castle  for  himself,  of  which  remains  the  motte,  a 
low  mound  covered  with  trees.  It  seems  not  to 
have  been  so  much  a  proper  castle  as  a  defence  to 
the  city  on  the  side  where  Nature,  as  represented 
by  the  River  Lavant,  had  left  it  most  exposed  to 
attack.  The  north-west  section  contains  even  now 
no  church  or  public  building  (except  the  Sub- 
deanery  Church  of  St.  Peter  erected  on  West 
Street  in  1853  on  the  removal  of  the  congrega- 
tion from  its  old  home  in  the  north  transept 
of  the  Cathedral)  ;  for  a  long  time  it  seems 
to  have  contained  very  few  houses,  and  sheep 
may  still  be  seen  there  grazing  within  the  city 
walls. 

In  addition  to  St.  Olaf 's,  Chichester  in  late  Saxon 
days  contained  a  minster  dedicated  to  St.  Peter, 
where  worshipped  some  devout  nuns,  "  Sancti 
Petri  monasterium  et  congregatio  monialium " 
are  William  of  Malmesbury's  words.  Out  appar- 
ently they  went,  however,  when  in  1075,  owing 
to  the  order  of  the  Council  of  London  that 
bishoprics  should  no  longer  be  attached  to  villages, 
the  see  was  moved  into  the  city  from  Selsey,  and 
the  Bishop's  stool  was  probably  set  up  in  their 
church,  on  whose  site  the  magnificent  cathedral 
was  to  rise.^  There  are  no  remains  of  it,  unless 
possibly  the  two  bas-reliefs  that  represent  our 
Lord  raising  Lazarus  and  visiting  Mary  and 
Martha.  They  are  rather  "Byzantine"  in  char- 


Hannah. 


CATHEDRAL    FROM    DEANERY. 


To  face  p.  26. 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  27 

acter,  and  His  particular  sanctity  is  marked  by 
His  great  size,  as  high  in  each  case  as  was  pos- 
sible within  the  limits  of  the  work.  The  fragments 
were  discovered  in  1829,  and  they  have  been  recon- 
structed against  the  south  wall  of  the  quire  aisle. 
Nothing  is  known  of  their  origin,  but  the  subjects, 
at  any  rate,  are  the  most  suitable  possible  for  a 
church  frequented  by  nuns.  It  seems  probable, 
however,  that  they  are  of  post-Conquest  date  and 
belonged  to  the  original  cathedral. 

This  building  was  begun  in  1088  by  Bishop  Ralph 
Luffa  (whose  coffin-slab  may  be  seen  just  outside 
the  Lady  Chapel)  and  continued  for  about  a 
century,  interrupted  by  a  fire  in  1114,  when  the 
nave  was  being  added  to  quire  and  transepts 
consecrated  in  1108;  the  four  west  bays  of  the 
nave  are  slightly  different  from  and  later  than 
the  four  east  bays.  The  Norman  church  thus 
completed  and  finally  consecrated  in  1184  was  of 
a  not  unusual  plan — nave  of  eight  bays  with  aisles 
and  west  towers,  central  tower,  transepts  with 
eastern  apses,  quire  of  three  bays  with  apse  and 
ambulatory,  the  latter  leading  to  an  apsidal  Lady 
Chapel  and,  as  Professor  Willis  showed,  flanked 
by  round  chapels  similar  to  those  still  existing  at 
Norwich.  Severe  and  impressive,  the  church  was 
remarkable  even  among  Norman  buildings  for  its 
lack  of  ornament.  The  earlier  portions  are  of 
rough  Quarr  Abbey  stone  from  the  Isle  of  Wight ; 
Caen  stone  was  used  later.  The  age  of  different 
sections  can  be  identified  by  tool  marks,  the  earliest 
showing  traces  of  the  pick-axe,  it  is  a  subject  on 
which  a  flood  of  light  has  been  thrown  by  the 
researches  of  Edward  Prior.  The  capitals  are  of 
different  kinds  of  marble  and  hard  stone,  some 
of  them  perhaps  chipped  from  boulders.  The 


28  THE  SUSSEX   COAST 

arches  opening  into  the  aisles  have  more  the 
appearance  of  being  pierced  through  the  walls 
than  of  resting  on  pillars,  and  the  block  piers 
are  almost  as  wide  as  the  openings  between  them. 
The  aisles  were  doubtless  vaulted,  the  central  roofs 
had  flat  wooden  ceilings  under  the  tie-beams,  and 
the  difficulty  of  getting  tall  trees  for  this  purpose 
probably  reduced  the  width  of  the  building.  The 
blind  story,  or  triforium,  has  not  been  altered; 
it  consists  of  large  arches,  each  enclosing  two 
smaller  ones,  with  a  round  shaft  between  and 
the  space  above  walled  with  square  stones  laid 
diagonally,  forming  a  rude  sort  of  diaper. 

Another  fire  in  1187  consumed  nearly  the  entire 
city,  as  Hoveden  records,  and  the  cathedral  suffered 
much.  The  roofs  perished,  the  clearstory  walls 
were  seriously  weakened,  falling  debris  badly 
damaged  the  lower  arcades.  The  rebuilding  was 
begun  and  carried  far  by  Bishop  Seffrid  II.  (1180- 
1204),  who  refaced  the  lower  arches,  supplying 
shafts  of  Purbeck  marble  and  mouldings  of  Early 
English  character,  built  clustered  vaulting-shafts 
up  the  walls,  restored  the  clearstory  with  three 
arches  in  each  bay  resting  on  Purbeck  shafts,  and 
provided  thick  chalk  vaulting  supported  by  stone 
ribs,  thus  giving  to  nave  and  quire  the  unusual 
and  beautiful  character  they  still  possess.  To 
support  the  vaults  very  plain  and  effective  fly- 
ing buttresses  without  pinnacles  were  constructed. 
The  west  towers  had  buttresses  built  against  their 
pilasters  and  were  heightened.  The  original  apse 
had  probably  collapsed  in  the  fire  (a  trace  may 
still  be  seen  just  behind  the  altar-screen  on  the 
north)  ;  in  its  place  the  quire  was  lengthened 
two  bays,  the  arches  round  with  deep-cut  and 
extremely  beautiful  mouldings,  the  pillars  almost 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY 


29 


unique,  each  consisting  of  a  central  round  column 
and  four  widely  detached  shafts,  foliage  capitals — 
all  this  of  Purbeck  marble. 

In  the  new  east  wall  was  provided  a  moulded 
arch  to  open  into  the  shortened  but  enriched  Lady 
Chapel,  over  it  "triforium"  arcading  with  sump- 
tuous carving,  and  above  three  great  lancet  win- 
dows. Little  chapels,  each  with  a  turret  supporting 


CAPITALS   IN   PRESBYTERY. 

a  tall  spire,  were  added  to  the  east  ends  of  the 
aisles.  The  apse  of  the  north  transept  was  re- 
placed by  the  large  chapel  that  long  formed  the 
chancel  of  the  sub-deanery  church  and  is  now  the 
library ;  its  single  round  pillar  and  vaulting-shafts 
have  carved  capitals.  Above  it  is  a  chamber  which 
was  once  a  chapel  and  retains  a  piscina,  now  part 
of  the  library  ;  it  is  covered  by  a  very  late  wooden 
roof.  The  corresponding  apse  on  the  south  was 


30  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

replaced  by  a  much  smaller  chapel  (dedicated,  it 
seems,  to  St.  Pantaleon,  whose  name  is  well  known 
in  connection  with  a  necessary  portion  of  mascu- 
line attire),  and  a  little  chamber  is  squeezed  in 
between  it  and  the  quire  aisle.  West  of  the  south 
transept  was  added  the  very  massive  sacristy — a 
striking  little  building  covered  with  a  heavy  vault 
in  two  bays,  the  bosses,  as  well  as  the  caps  of  the 
window-shafts,  carved  with  foliage.  The  Cathedral 
thus  restored  was  dedicated  anew  in  1199,  and  it 
has  not  been  greatly  changed  in  character  by  later 
additions,  though  they  have  added  to  its  pictur- 
esqueness  and  given  it  a  certain  Continental  air. 
Early  in  the  thirteenth  century  porches  were 
added  north  and  south  of  the  nave ;  the  former 
touches  the  west  tower,  the  latter  the  sacristy. 
Later  on,  about  1260,*  a  larger  porch  was  built 
at  the  west  end.  The  three  differ  much  in  detail, 
but  in  each  case  the  outer  arch  is  left  open  and 
subdivided  into  two  resting  on  a  slender  shaft. 
During  the  same  century  outer  chapels  were  added 
to  the  nave,  giving  it  the  five-aisled  character  that 
is  an  attractive  and  unique  feature  among  English 
cathedrals,  t  That  on  the  north,  all  but  its  plain 
east  bay,  the  original  resting-place  of  St.  Richard, 
is  later  than  the  other,  and  has  beautiful  three- 
light  windows  of  early  Decorated  character.  Both 
outer  aisles  have  clustered  shafts  and  graceful 
ribbed  vaults.  Probably  about  1250  the  central 
tower  was  rebuilt  on  the  old  Norman  arches.  By 
Bishop  Gilbert  of  Sancto  Leophardo  (1288-1301) 
the  Lady  Chapel  J  was  lengthened  eastward  by 

*  This  date  is  suggested  by  Philip  Johnston, 
t  That  of  Manchester  was,  when  built,  only  a  collegiate 
church. 

+  It  need  hardly  be  mentioned  that  this  is  simply  a  chapel 


AFTER  THE  FALL  OF  THE  SPIRE. 


SOUTH   TRANSEPT  :     CLEARED   OF    RUINS. 


NAVE   AND   SOUTH    TRANSEPT  :     UNTOUCHED. 


To  face  p.  30. 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  31 

two  bays  and  reconstructed;   its  Decorated  win- 
dows,   with    geometrical    tracery    and    beautiful 
ribbed  vault,  produce  a  glorious  effect.     In  spite 
of  its  patchwork,   it  has  a  uniform  appearance, 
and  is  one  of  the  loveliest  chapels   of   its   kind. 
Early    in    the    fourteenth    century    the    south 
transept  was  furnished  with  a  huge  seven-light 
Decorated  window,  instead  of  the  smaller  open- 
ings that  were  there  before  ;  under  it  is  the  tomb 
of  its  builder,   Bishop  Langton  (1305-1337).     The 
beauty  of  the  tracery  is  somewhat  set  off  by  the 
rather  indifferent  Metz  glass,  which  was  in  that 
town  during  the  German  siege  of  1870,  but  suffered 
no  harm.    Like  much  of  the  glass  in  the  Cathedral, 
it  may  be  described  as  excellent  in  intention  but 
vile  both  in  colour  and    drawing.     Late  in  the 
century  the  north  transept  was  provided  with  a 
great  seven-light  Perpendicular  window,  and  about 
the  same  time  cloisters  were  provided,  for,  though 
the  Cathedral  was    always   secular,   it  was  very 
usual  for  such  a  foundation  to  follow  the  fashion 
set  by  the  abbeys.     There  was  no  clear  space  to 
do  this  in  the  regular  way  (i.e.,  by  providing   a 
cloister  court  south  of  the  nave  leading  to  the 
various  necessary  buildings),  so  a  west  walk  was 
built  southward  from  the  south  porch  of  the  nave, 
a  much  longer  east  walk  extended  from  the  south 
door  of  the  quire  (or  rather  presbytery)   to   St. 
Faith's  Chantry  Chapel,  and  there  were  joined  by 
a  south  walk,  not  at  all  parallel  to  the  axis  of 
the  church.     The  south  walk  touches  a  fourteenth- 
century  house  (once  assigned  to  the  Wykehamical 

dedicated  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  ;  one  cannot  be  too  careful  to 
have  the  expression  correct.  Only  a  few  months  ago  I  was 
told  in  a  city  overseas  that  the  "ladies'  room"  at  one  of  the 
churches  cost  *  100, 000  I 


32  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

prebendaries)  in  St.  Richard's  Walk,  which  is  now 
modernised,  and  leads  to  the  west  end  of  St. 
Faith's,  some  ruins  of  which  are  of  Decorated 
character ;  the  site  is  partly  occupied  by  a  house. 
The  cloister  windows  are  of  four  lights  each;  their 
roofs  are  of  Spanish  chestnut,  which  spiders  hate, 
the  beams  of  arched  form ;  their  walls  are  plas- 
tered with  tablets,  and  they  greatly  resemble 
the  nearly  contemporary  cloisters  at  Winchester 
College.  Looking  through  their  unglazed  windows 
at  the  graveyard  they  enclose,  called  Paradise, 
with  the  great  mass  of  the  Cathedral  beyond,  every 
stone  bearing  its  message  from  the  days  of  long 
ago,  one  feels  a  solemn  stillness,  the  completest 
peace  that  this  world  can  bestow. 

A  chapter-house  at  the  Cathedral  is  mentioned  in 
much  earlier  times;  for  instance,  in  the  Chronicle 
of  Battle  Abbey.  Either  it  was  some  building  of 
which  no  memory  has  survived,  or  a  chapel  served 
the  purpose,  perhaps  the  one  now  used  as  library. 
No  chapter-house  was  ever  built  in  the  usual  posi- 
tion, opening  from  the  east  walk  of  the  cloister; 
but  over  the  sacristy  was  added  a  chamber  that 
now  serves  the  purpose.  Whether  it  did  so  origin- 
ally, or  was  merely  the  consistory  jcourt,  is  keenly 
debated.  Large  buttresses  were  constructed  to 
support  the  additional  masonry,  and  a  very  wide 
newel  stairway  was  made  as  its  approach  ;  it  is 
a  pleasant  panelled  room,  and  in  the  west  wall 
a  shutter  slides  aside  and  opens  into  a  small 
secret  chamber  over  the  south  porch.  (It  has 
usually  been  assumed,  perhaps  wrongly,  that  it 
was  here  that  in  1642  the  Parliament  soldiers 
found  much  of  the  treasure  of  the  church,  when 
Sir  Arthur  Haselrigg  could  not  contain  himself 
for  joy,  and  vociferating,  "There,  boys,  hark,  it 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  33 

rattles ! "  he  indecently  capered  about.  Dean  Ry ves 
(p.  42),  who  tells  the  story,  adds  the  well-merited 
sneer,  "  Marke  what  music  it  is  lawful  for  a 
Puritan  to  dance  to.") 

During  the  fifteenth  century  the  beautiful  stone 
spire  rose  over  the  low  tower  in  the  centre  of  the 
church ;  the  total  height  is  but  277  feet,  but  it  is 
a  welcome  landmark  from  the  Downs  and  over  the 
sea.  About  contemporary  is  the  detached  bell 
tower  built  of  greenish  sandstone  from  near 
Ventnor  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  which  Camden 
says,  probably  correctly,  was  originally  quarried 
for  one  Ryman  to  crenellate  his  house  at  Apple- 
dram  hard  by  (p.  49).  It  is  a  heavily  buttressed 
square  tower,  the  upper  part  octagonal,  resting 
on  extremely  substantial  squinch  arches  of  three 
orders  each,  and  with  a  pinnacle  in  each  corner. 

Thus  was  completed  the  great  Church,  unusually 
planned  in  so  many  ways — the  five  aisles,  the  four 
towers,  the  wandering  cloisters,  the  far  detached 
presbytery  shafts,  are  all  looked  for  elsewhere  in 
vain.  In  other  respects  the  irregularities  of  the 
building  are  great ;  not  a  straight  line  nor  a  right 
angle  does  it  contain ;  an  extraordinary  series  of 
bends  is  revealed  to  whoso  stands  at  the  west  door 
and  looks  straight  up  the  axis  of  the  building.  To 
mask  outside  the  bending  of  the  nave  walls  the 
thirteenth-century  tref  oiled  corbel-table  that  carries 
the  clearstory  parapet  is  supplemented  on  the 
south  by  a  sloping  set-off,  for  here  the  wall  is 
convex ;  on  the  north  the  corbel-table  is  doubled, 
and  the  lower  one  gradually  sinks  into  the  con- 
cave walling.  For  these  irregularities  all  kinds 
of  learned  explanations  have  been  given.  The 
true  one  is  apparent  to  any  one  who  has  realised 
the  spirit  of  mediaeval  times ;  it  was  a  rough-and- 

3 


34  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

ready  though  a  vigorous  structure  that  the  Church 
built  on  the  Empire's  ruins  ;  the  accurate  measure- 
ments of  the  Parthenon  were  as  far  away  as 
the  steam  engine ;  our  fathers  were  in  a  hurry 
to  see  their  great  church  rise,  and  could  not 
be  bothered  to  measure  the  site  again  and 
again.  So  they  roughly  set  out  their  design  and 
they  built.  Ancient  English  architecture  is  as 
rambling  and  as  full  of  surprises  as  ancient 
English  law. 

But  meanwhile,  in  addition  to  a  number  of 
mediaeval  monuments,  the  Cathedral  had  been 
acquiring  fittings  contemporary  with  parts  of  its 
fabric.  The  beautiful  canopied  quire  stalls  with 
misereres  (contrivances  to  ensure  that  worshippers 
did  not  sleep  by  requiring  them  to  sit  on  the 
up-tilted  edges  of  hinged  seats  in  doubtfully  stable 
equilibrium)  date  partly  from  the  early  fourteenth 
century,  but  considerable  portions  are  modern. 
Bishop  Arundel  (1459-1478)  erected  a  beautiful 
stone  screen  in  the  east  bay  of  the  nave  against 
the  tower  piers ;  on  the  west  were  three  moulded 
arches  without  capitals,  twenty-two  canopied 
niches  above ;  the  interior  was  most  elaborately 
vaulted  with  ribs  and  bosses,  two  ribs  being  curved 
to  cover  slight  miscalculations,  rather  reminding 
us  of  the  "  fictions  "  so  familiar  in  English  law.  A 
single  arch  in  the  centre  opened  to  the  quire. 
After  long  lying  about  in  fragments  it  has  been 
re-erected  in  the  bell  tower. 

By  that  extremely  interesting  Tudor  prelate, 
Bishop  Sherburne  *  (1508-1 536),  were  provided  paint- 
ings on  wood  by  Bernardi,  representing  former 
Bishops  of  Selsey  and  Chichester  in  circles  (all 

*  A  very  good  account  of  this  bishop  is  given  in  Dean 
Stephens's  South  Saxon  See  (p.  75). 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  35 

exactly  alike),  Ceadwalla  *  making  the  grant  of 
land  to  Wilfrid  and  Henry  VIII.  confirming  it  to 
himself,  all  the  costumes  being  of  the  time  when 
the  paintings  were  made.  In  the  south  quire  aisle 
rests  the  good  bishop  under  a  tomb  with  recum- 
bent effigy  which  he  himself  prepared — "a  pour 
remembrance,"  he  calls  it;  his  favourite  mottoes, 
"  operibus  credite "  and  "  Non  intres  in  indicium 
cum  servo  tuo,  Domine"  also  appear.  Probably 
his  work  was  the  oaken  altar-screen  which  has 
recently  been  restored  from  fragments  preserved  ; 
in  front  of  it  is  a  beautiful  carved  retable  pre- 
sented by  the  present  Dean  in  memory  of  his 
wife — one  of  numerous  memorials  in  the  Cathe- 
dral, for  Sussexians  love  their  Mother  Church  as 
much  as  ever  of  old. 

Recently  restored  in  the  presbytery  behind  the 
altar  screen,  more  or  less  as  it  is  shown  in  the 
plate  of  John  Coney  engraved  in  1824  for  an 
edition  of  Dugdale's  Monasticon  Anglicanum — 
whether  or  not  the  original  one  was  similar  is 
quite  another  matter — there  stands  the  platform 
where  once  rested  the  shrine  of  St.  Richard,  whose 
name  is  also  borne  by  the  walk  leading  from 
the  cloisters  to  Canon  Lane,  while  the  map  of 
Chichester  by  Jodocus  Hondius  (published  in 
Speed's  Theatre  of  the  Empire  of  Great  Britaine) 
as  late  as  1610  calls  the  Cathedral  St.  Richard's 
Minster  (p.  50).  The  westmost  chapel  of  the 
outer  south  aisle  belonged  to  the  Gild  of  St. 
George  as  the  old  Merchant  Gild  was  called  on 
being  refounded  about  1368  with  the  mayor  as  its 
master.  It  had  had  a  charter  from  Stephen  con- 
firming its  privileges,  deemed  ancient  even  then ; 
we  hardly  dare  assert  a  historic  continuity  with 
*  He  really  only  confirmed  the  grant  of  ^Edilwalch. 


36  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

the  Collegium  Fabrorum  of  Imperial  days,  satis- 
factory as  that  would  be.  About  1394  it  sold  its 
hall  to  Bishop  Mitford,  who  presented  it  to  the 
Vicars  of  the  Cathedral,*  the  vaulted  crypt  of 
this  building  with  a  central  row  of  round  pillars 
dating  from  the  thirteenth  century  may  still  be 
seen,  but  apparently  the  hall  itself  was  so 
dilapidated  that  it  had  to  be  rebuilt.  In  1396 
with  most  solemn  ceremonial  were  laid  no  less 
than  four  foundation  stones  in  honour  of  the 
Holy  Trinity,  the  Virgin  Mother  of  God,  St. 
Richard  and  all  the  saints ;  upon  them  in  due 
course  rose  the  Common  Mansion  House  in  which 
the  vicars  had  agreed  to  live.  It  seems  likely 
that  the  existing  Vicars'  Hall  incorporates  much 
of  this  building,  it  is  of  Perpendicular  character 
with  a  pulpit  in  the  thickness  of  the  wall,  a 
lavatory  under  a  flat  ogee  arch,  square-headed 
windows  and  fine  roof  timbers,  enlarged  and 
rather  altered  during  the  seventeenth  century. 
Extending  from  it  to  the  south  is  the  long  court 
of  the  Vicars'  Close,  slightly  recalling  that  of 
Wells,  but  the  creeper-concealed  houses  are  largely 
modern,  while  those  on  the  east  side  have  been 
refronted  on  to  South  Street,  their  gardens  con- 
verted into  back-yards  and  walled  off,  to  the 
utter  ruin  of  the  effect.  Formerly  an  archway 
opened  into  Canon  Lane ;  it  is  shown  on  a  plate 
by  James  Rouse  (1825). 

Canon  Lane  is  entered  from  South  Street  by 
a  plain  fifteenth-century  gateway,  and  it  leads 

*  By  Edward  IV.  the  Vicars  were  incorporated  as  a 
separate  College,  having  to  obey  the  Dean  and  Chapter  in 
all  things  lawful,  honest  and  canonical.  This  is  correctly 
stated  in  Dugdale,  but  Mackenzie  Walcott,  F.S.A.,  altering 
it  to  Edward  I.  has  misled  many. 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  37 

to  a  more  ornate  fourteenth-century  gateway  at 
the  western  end.  This  opens  into  the  Bishop's 
garden,  which  with  its  old  walls  covered  with 
lichens  '  and  plants,  its  magnificent  flowering 
Chinese  privets,  the  hugest  of  their  kind,  its 
other  rare  trees,  its  lawns  stretching  to  the  city 
walls  and  delightful  views  of  the  Cathedral 
towers,  is  one  of  the  loveliest  spots  on  this  earth. 
The  Palace  is  a  rambling  old  house  of  varying 
dates  with  a  beautiful  vaulted  chapel,  the  work 
of  Seffrid  II. ,  an  enormous  square  kitchen  with  a 
striking  timber  roof  probably  built  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  and  a  good  deal  of  work  by 
Sherburne,  including  the  dining-room  ceiling 
painted  with  armorial  bearings.  The  picturesque 
old  brick  walls,  and  a  battlemented  octagonal  tower 
in  the  garden,  were  the  work  of  the  same  bishop. 

The  arms  of  the  see  (p.  19)  are  thus  described 
by  Thorn.  A.  Vicars,  pastor  of  the  church  at 
Cockfield  in  Southsex  in  dedicating  a  sermon 
of  his  to  the  Bishop  in  1626.  "  The  subject  of 
the  sermon  is  your  Coate  of  Armes.  The  most 
godly  and  fairest  Armes  that  ever  I  or  any  in 
the  world  set  his  eyes  upon.  Christ  Jesus  the 
great  Pastor  and  Bishop  of  our  soules  sits  in 
your  azure  field  in  a  faire  long  garment  of  beaten 
gold,  with  a  sharpe  two-edged  sword  in  his  mouth. 
Is  it  accounted  a  great  grace,  and  that  for  Kings 
and  Princes  too,  to  carrie  in  their  shields,  a  Lyon, 
an  Eagle,  a  Lilly,  a  Harpe  or  such-like  animal  or 
artificial  thing?  How  much  more  honour  is  it 
then  1  pray  you  to  carrie  Christ  Jesus  in  your 
shield,  who  is  Lord  of  Lords  and  King  of  Kings  ?  " 

There  were  no  monks  or  nuns  located  in  Chi- 
chester  after  the  removal  thither  of  the  see — the 
Benedictine  House  of  Boxgrove  was  a  little  over 


38  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

three  miles  off — but  Blackfriars  were  settled  in  the 
Pallant  by  Edmund,  Earl  of  Cornwall,  in  1228. 
Greyfriars  found  a  lodging  in  the  north-east 
section.  In  1269  William  of  Albini,  Earl  of 
Arundel,  having  decided  to  dismantle  the  castle, 
presented  them  with  its  magnificent  site.  The 
quire  of  their  church  remains ;  it  long  formed 
the  Guildhall,  Blake  once  had  to  undergo  a  trial 
in  it  (p.  96),  but  though  it  has  been  recently 
repaired  no  one  has  been  able  to  find  a  better 
use  for  it  than  keeping  a  few  tennis  balls  therein  ! 
It  is  a  beautiful  thirteenth-century  building 
without  aisles,  five  lancets  in  the  east  wall,  five 
two-light  windows  each  side,  piscina,  sedilia  and 
sepulchral  recess,  newel  stair  south-west,  timber 
roof.  At  the  west  end  is  an  arch  with  clustered 
responds  which  opened  to  the  nave  or  friars' 
preaching  hall,  on  whose  north  side  were  cloisters ; 
a  fragment  remains  in  the  north-west  corner 
with  an  iron  hinge  for  a  shutter.  Apparently 
some  of  the  building  materials  were  taken  from 
the  Castle ;  how  far  the  convent  was  finished 
seems  doubtful.* 

The  original  buildings  of  St.  Mary's  Hospital 
were  connected  with  the  Church  of  St.  Mary  in 
the  market  close  to  the  middle  of  the  city.  The 
Church  of  St.  Peter  in  Foro  had  exactly  two 
parishioners,  and  in  1229  this  was  granted  to  the 
Hospital  to  be  taken  down,  seats  or  at  any  rate 
places  for  the  two  worthy  persons  deprived  of  a 
place  of  worship  to  be  provided  in  the  Hospital 
Church.  By  Thomas  of  Lichfield,  Dean  of 
Chichester  1232-1246,  the  institution  was  re- 
founded,  and  when  the  friars  moved  to  the  Castle 
park  the  Hospital  was  rebuilt  on  their  old  site. 
*  See  W.  V,  Crake  in  S.A.C.,  li. 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  39 

It  is  a  building  of  unique  interest  in  the  beautiful 

Early  Decorated  style,  consisting  of  a  large  hall 

whose   roof    rests   on   great  wooden    pillars,   and 

conies  nearly  down  to  the  ground  at  the  eaves, 

and,  opening  eastward  by  a  surprisingly  wide  and 

lofty  arch,  a  spacious  chapel.     This  last  has  large 

Decorated    windows,    three     sedilia     on   different 

levels,  and  a  piscina;  the  miserere  stalls  and  the 

screen  are  original  features,  the  latter  has  turned 

mullions,  good  tracery  with  gables  and  a  horizontal 

beam  above.     The  date   may  be   put   about   1290. 

No  other  hospital  in  England  seems  to  preserve 

exactly   the    same   arrangement,*   which    in    the 

Middle  Ages  was   not   unusual ;    for  instance,  the 

Infirmary    of     Bardney     Abbey    in     Lincolnshire 

(recently  excavated)   was   on   precisely   the   same 

plan,  while  the  Infirmary  at  Ely  differed  only  in 

assigning  to  the  chapel  the  eastmost  bays  of  the 

"  nave  "  in  addition  to  the  "  chancel."     At  Liibeck 

the   picturesque   old    Heiligen   Geist-Hospital   has 

a  sort  of  west  transept,  the  facade  with   three 

gables  and  tall   octagonal  turrets  between,  that 

forms  the  chapel,  and  separated  by  a  screen,  is  a 

very  long  nave  that  forms  the  ward.     The  "  nave  " 

or  hall  at  St.  Mary's  was  later  divided  into  little 

chambers  with    a    passage   between,   large   brick 

chimneys  being  built   up  through  the  roof;   they 

are  dated   1680.     Elizabeth   granted   a  charter  in 

1582 ;  Cromwell  handed  the  institution  over  to  the 

city.     The  charity  is  at  present  very  flourishing, 

and    is    administered    according    to    the   original 

trusts  with  necessary  modifications.     An  extension 

for  old  men  has  been  recently  made  by  adapting 

some  cottages  to  the  purpose. 

*  That  called  Bishop  Still's  at  Wells  was  similar,  but  the 
"nave"  is  divided  by  a  floor. 


40  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

St.  James's  Hospital  for  Lepers  was  possibly 
founded  by  the  good  Queen  Maud,  wife  of  Henry  I. 
Its  slender  endowments  are  handed  over  to  the 
excellent  Chichester  Infirmary,  and  its  visible 
remains  are  confined  to  fragments  built  into  a 
thatched  cottage  on  the  West  Hampnett  Road, 
and  the  name  of  a  neighbouring  thoroughfare, 
Spitalfield  Lane. 

Besides  those  already  mentioned,  there  are 
three  churches  within  the  walls,  small  and  not 
very  interesting,  All  Saints  in  the  Pallant,  St. 
Andrew's  where  Collins  lies  at  rest,  and  St.  Peter 
the  Less  with  a  miniature  tower,  the  only 
Mediaeval  one  besides  those  of  the  Cathedral. 
There  was  in  Norman  times  a  Chapel  of  St. 
Cyriac,  a  child  who  suffered  with  his  mother  at 
Tarsus  in  Cilicia  during  the  Diocletian  persecution. 
St.  Martin's  was  taken  down  in  1904 ;  it  had  been 
largely  rebuilt  by  Martha  Dear,  who  died  in  1807, 
and  of  whom  we  learn  from  a  tablet,  now  removed 
to  St.  Olaf's, 

"She  was  just  without  severity 
Charitable  without  ostentation  and 
Pious  without  enthusiasm." 

In   other  words,  she  would  have   nothing  to   do 
with  the  Methodist  Movement. 

At  the  centre  of  the  city  is  the  beautiful  old 
Market  Cross,  so-called  from  a  feature  which  is 
replaced  by  a  weather-cock.  It  is  octagonal  with 
a  round  central  pillar  and  its  rib-vaulted  space, 
where  men  may  sell  without  the  payment  of  dues, 
is  open  to  all  the  winds  of  heaven  by  eight  arches 
with  buttresses  between.  The  walls  are  adorned 
with  late  Perpendicular  panelling  and  other 
ornament,  eight  flying  buttresses  slope  up  to  the 


CHICHESTER   AND  VICINITY  41 

central  turret.  It  was  built  just  before  1500  by 
Bishop  Storey  (1478-1503),  who  also  founded  or 
refounded  the  Free  School,  in  giving  his  reasons 
for  which  public-spirited  act  he  makes  some  most 
unflattering  references  to  the  learning  of  the  clergy 
of  his  time. 

One  of  the  Boxburghe  ballads  preserves  for  us 
an  account  of  a  most  uplifting  and  improving 
episode  in  the  history  of  the  city,  or  at  least  of 
one  of  its  citizens.  It  is  entitled  "  A  Most  Sweet 
Song  of  an  English  Merchant  borne  at  Chichester." 
He  had  unfortunately  happened  to  murder  a 
German  at  Emden,  and  this  got  him  into  trouble : 

' '  Bare-headed  was  hee  brought, 
His  hands  were  bound  before, 
A  cambricke  ruffe  about  his  necke, 
As  white  as  milk,  hee  wore  : 
His  stockings  were  of  silke, 
As  fine  as  fine  might  be  ; 
Of  person  and  of  countenance 
a  proper  man  was  he." 

However,  on  his  way  to  execution  a  kind-hearted 
girl  begged  for  his  pardon  and  entirely  saved  the 
situation,  changing  a  tragedy  into  the  happiest  of 
festivals. 

' '  With  musicke  sounding  sweet, 
The  formost  of  the  traine, 
This  gallant  maiden,  like  a  bride, 
Did  fetch  him  back  agaiiie  : 
Yea,  hand  in  hand  they  went 
Unto  the  church  that  day, 
And  they  were  married  presently 

in  sumptuous  rich  array. 
A  sweet  thing  is  Love, 
It  rules  both  heart  and  mind  ; 
There  is  no  comfort  in  the  world 

to  women  that  are  kind." 


42  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

The  bulk  of  the  citizens  were  for  the  Parliament 
in  the  disputes  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
that  was  the  chief  reason  why  Chichester  could 
be  held  for  so  short  a  time  when  besieged  by  Sir 
William  Waller  in  1642.  On  this  occasion  the 
Cathedral  suffered  much  from  the  Puritan  soldiery, 
who  were  careful  to  destroy  everything  of  which 
their  consciences  disapproved,  and  that  included 
the  Ten  Commandments  which  were  painted  up 
over  the  altar;  but  then,  as  Dean  Bruno  Ryves 
put  it  in  his  account  of  their  barbarous  outrages, 
"'Twas  no  wonder  that  they  should  break  the 
Commandments  in  their  representation,  that  had 
before  broken  them  all  in  their  substance  and 
sanction."  After  the  Restoration,  appointed  Dean 
of  Windsor,  Dr.  Ryves  preached  a  most  subtle 
sermon  in  which  he  pointed  out  that  no  improve- 
ment in  English  weather  could  be  hoped  for  till  all 
the  murderers  of  the  King  had  been  executed,  an 
Old  Testament  doctrine  that  was  appropriately 
driven  home  by  references  to  the  Gibeonites  and 
Achan. 

One  of  the  regicides  was  William  Cawley,  a 
prominent  Cicestrian,  who  undoubtedly  did  some- 
thing to  mould  public  opinion  in  the  city.  He 
founded  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital  outside  the 
North  Gate.  Its  little  brick  court  and  tiny  step- 
battlemented,  clock-turreted  chapel,  dated  1625 
with  the  initials  W.C.,  forms  a  good  example  of  the 
style  of  building  of  that  age.  The  original  grave 
of  Cawley  is  in  St.  Martin's,  Vevey,  for  the  insanely 
vindictive  government  of  Charles  II.  made  Eng- 
land no  pleasant  home  for  such  as  had  helped  to 
place  the  crown  of  the  Martyr  on  the  brow  of 
Charles  I.  It  seems  likely,  however,  that  by  his 
son  the  body  of  the  founder  was  brought  home 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  43 

and  reverently  placed  under  the  chapel  floor.  The 
institution,  having  for  some  years  been  the  pro- 
perty of  the  city,  was  in  1753  made  the  regular 
workhouse,  an  Act  of  Parliament  being  obtained. 

The  suburb  of  St.  Pancras,  outside  the  East  Gate, 
contained  at  one  period  the  chief  needle  industry 
of  England,  and  at  the  time  of  Waller's  siege 
almost  every  house  in  it  was  occupied  by  a  needle- 
maker.  It  suffered  severely  in  the  fighting,  the 
church  was  burnt  and  lay  in  ruin  till  1751,  when 
the  present  simple  structure  was  erected.  A  record 
of  1725,  preserved  in  Spershott's  Memorials  of 
Chichester,  says,  "  there  were  many  master  needle- 
makers  who  kept  journeymen  and  apprentices  at 
work,  but  now  are  reduced  to  one."  To  com- 
memorate the  glorious  event  of  1688  the  citizens 
founded  a  sort  of  club  called  the  Mayor  and 
Corporation  of  St.  Pancras  ;  it  possesses  a  wooden 
mace  inscribed,  "  Incorpor  A.D.  1689."  A  con- 
temporary note-book  of  Thomas  Osborne,  of  the 
Hornet,  records  "  Wm.  Compton,  the  cooper,  calld 
and  told  me  that  James  2nd,  the  papistical,  was 
cut  and  runnd  to  across  the  sea,  and  that  the 
glorious  Prince  of  Orange  was  marvelously  recevd 
by  all  the  nobility  and  gentry,  and  twas  like  a 
triumphal  march  all  the  way  from  Torbay  unto 
Westminster."  This  seems  accurately  to  represent 
the  general  opinion  of  the  citizens. 

Among  other  monuments  by  Flaxman  *  in  the 
Cathedral  is  a  striking  bas-relief  to  the  poet 
William  Collins  (1721-1759).  Son  of  a  Chichester 
hatter,  Wykehamist  and  graduate  of  Magdalen 
College,  Oxford,  who  to  a  considerable  extent 
interested  Dr.  Johnson,  he  gained  during  his  short 
life  a  secure  place  in  English  literature.  Sincerely 
*  The  epitaph  by  Hayley  is  given  on  p.  90. 


44  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

religious,  latterly  insane,  he  wrote  extremely  well  at 
times  though  lacking  fire  and  to  a  certain  extent 
imagination.  Perhaps  the  following,  from  the  Ode 
for  Music,  is  as  good  as  anything  he  composed : — 

4 '  When  Music,  heavenly  maid,  was  young, 
While  yet  in  early  Greece  she  sung, 
The  Passions  oft,  to  hear  her  shell 
Throng'd  around  her  magic  cell, 
Exulting,  trembling,  raging,  fainting, 
Possest  beyond  the  Muse's  painting  ; 
By  turns  they  felt  the  glowing  mind 
Disturb'd,  delighted,  rais'd,  refin'd. 

#  #  *  •* 

With  eyes  up-rais'd,  as  one  inspir'd, 
Pale  Melancholy  sat  retir'd, 
And  from  her  wild  sequester'd  seat, 
In  notes  by  distance  made  more  sweet, 
Pour'd  thro'  the  mellow  Horn  her  pensive  soul  : 

And  dashing  soft  from  rocks  around, 

Bubbling  runnels  join'd  the  sound  ; 
Thro'  glades  and  glooms  the  mingled  measure  stole 

Or  o'er  some  haunted  streams  with  fond  delay, 
Round  an  holy  calm  diffusing 
Love  of  peace,  and  lonely  musing, 
In  hollow  measures  died  away." 

Dean  Sherlock,  who  about  1747  built  the  present 
box-like  Deanery,  proposed  that  six  little  old 
churches,  which  were  always  a  problem  from  the 
waste  of  parson-power  they  caused,  should  be 
taken  down  and  St.  Mary's  Hospital  made 
parochial  for  their  congregations.  The  citizens 
were  up  in  arms  and  nothing  was  done.  There 
was,  however,  a  strong  desire  for  a  large  and  con- 
venient church  for  those  who  did  not  care  for  the 
Cathedral  form  of  service,  and  in  1812  an  act  was 
secured  to  build  the  extremely  ugly  but  com- 
modious Chapel  of  St.  John. 


AFTER  THE  FALL  OF  THE  SPIRE. 


BELL   TOWER   THROUGH    THE   RUINS. 


FROM    NORTH-EAST. 


To  face  p.  44. 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  45 

The  interest  of  Cicestrians  in  the  American  Civil 
War  and  the  stirring  events  that  led  up  to  it  was 
reduced  by  a  disaster  in  their  midst  even  more 
disturbing  to  their  minds.  An  old  Sussex  couplet 
is  alleged  to  have  prophesied — 

"  If  Chichester  church  steeple  fall, 
In  England  there's  no  King  at  all." 

A  queen  was  on  the  throne  when  in  the  early 
days  of  1861  workmen  were  engaged  up  to  the 
last  moment  over  desperate  efforts  to  avert  the 
calamity,  but  to  no  purpose.  Cracks  increased, 
props  bent  or  snapped,  the  bulging  piers  at  length 
gave  way,  tower  and  spire  came  telescoping  down, 
destroying  the  entire  centre  of  the  church  and 
leaving  a  yawning  gap,  but  fortunately  neither 
hurting  any  one  nor  falling  beyond  that  section  of 
the  building.  A  series  of  timber  ties  were  imme- 
diately set  up  anchoring  back  the  thrust  of  the 
remaining  arches,  and  successful  efforts  were  made 
to  prevent  any  extension  of  the  calamity.  At  a 
cost  of  over  £60,000  the  tower  and  spire  were 
rebuilt  on  the  old  lines  under  the  direction  of  Sir 
Gilbert  Scott.  The  only  important  alteration 
was  slightly  to  increase  the  height  of  the  lower 
stage  of  the  tower  that  the  ridges  of  the  four 
roofs  might  meet  it  more  neatly  than  before. 
The  piers  and  arches  were  built  up  entirely 
separate  from  what  remained  of  the  church,  and 
the  junction  was  not  made  until  the  new  work 
was  entirely  set.  The  spire  is  for  the  greater  part 
of  its  height  about  seven  inches  thick,  strengthened 
by  the  corner  ribs. 

During  the  seventeenth  century  the  north-west 
tower  had  fallen,  and  Wren  (who  had  sought  to 


46  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

protect  the  central  spire  by  an  ingeniously  con- 
trived pendulum)  advised  the  shortening  of  the 
nave  by  an  entire  bay  and  the  erection  of  a  classic 
facade.  Fortunately  this  was  not  done,  the  ruined 
walls  of  the  tower  were  protected  by  battlements 
and  two  little  turrets  with  spires.  In  1899,  under 
Pearson's  direction,  the  tower  was  rebuilt  in  the 
same  general  Norman  and  Early  English  style  as 
the  other  one,  both  being  extremely  low ;  thus 
was  the  Cathedral  once  more  equipped  with  its 
full  number  of  four  towers. 

Many  felt  the  fall  of  the  spire  as  a  terrible 
personal  loss,  but  no  one,  it  was  said,  quite  so 
keenly  as  Charles  Crocker,  the  poet  verger,  whose 
sonnet  to  the  Oak  Southey  declared  to  be  one  of 
the  finest  ever  written,  and  anyway  it  is  well 
worth  quoting : — 

"When,  sacred  plant,  the  Druid  sage  of  old, 
With  reverential  awe,  beheld  in  thee 
The  abode  or  emblem  of  Divinity, 

Methinks  some  vague  prophetic  vision  rolled 

Before  his  wondering  eyes,  and  dimly  told 
Thy  future  fame — thy  glorious  destiny. 
Haply,  e'en  then,  deep  musing,  he  might  see, 

Within  thy  trunk  revered,  that  Spirit  bold 

Which  sprang  from  thence  in  aftertimes,  and  stood, 
Rejoicing  in  his  might,  in  Ocean's  flood, 

The  guardian  genius  of  Britannia's  Isle  ; 

At  whose  dread  voice  admiring  nations  bow, 
In  duteous  homage — tyrants  are  laid  low — 

And  fierce  Oppression's  victims  learn  to  smile." 

Crocker  was  a  shoemaker  by  trade,  Chichester 
was  his  world,  Charles  Fleet,  indeed  (Glimpses  of 
our  Ancestors  in  Sussex),  doubts  whether  he  ever 
slept  out  of  the  city  during  his  whole  life.  He 
could  find  pleasure  in  homely  joys  and  had  not  a 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  47 

trace  of  the  restlessness  that  so  often  accompanies 
the  poetic  spirit.  The  disaster  to  the  great  church 
that  he  loved  undoubtedly  hastened  his  end. 

In  the  west  suburb  is  the  very  ugly  little  classic 
Church  of  St.  Bartholomew.  From  an  engraving 
by  John  Dunstall  (1662)  it  has  been  supposed  that 
the  mediaeval  building  was  round.  The  city  streets 
display  a  good  many  old  houses,  the  fronts  are,  as 
a  rule,  staid  brickword  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries.  In  the  pre-motor  epoch 
Chichester  used  to  resemble  Vanity  Fair  during 
the  week  of  Goodwood  races,  this  is  ;now  past  and 
gone,  and  for  fifty-two  weeks  of  the  year  a  quiet 
peace  broods  over  the  place.  It  is  sometimes 
humorously  remarked  that  half  the  city  is  asleep, 
the  other  half  goes  on  tip-toe  not  to  wake  the  first 
half  up,  and  that  the  Cathedral  clock  takes  ten 
minutes  to  strike ;  a  former  Dean,  facetiously 
inclined,  dated  his  letters  as  from  Sleepy  Hollow. 
This  may  all  be,  Chichester's  fires  may  be  hidden, 
her  citizens,  perhaps,  are  thinking  rather  than 
doing  at  the  moment,  but  only  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet  would  this  city  permit  the  Merry  Monarch 
to  occupy  his  throne ;  Chichester  has  spoken  in  the 
past,  Chichester  may  speak  again. 

A  short  distance  south-east  of  the  city  is  Rum- 
boldswyke,  the  old  church  of  which,  now  at  any 
rate  dedicated  to  St.  Rumbold,  has  a  plain  Early 
Norman,  or  possibly  Saxon,  chancel  arch,  and  part 
of  the  walling  is  of  the  same  date,  built  largely  of 
Roman  materials.  Other  parts  are  Early  English 
or  modern.  A  much  larger  modern  brick  church 
has  a  mediaeval  bell  from  St.  Martin's  and  is 
dedicated  to  St.  George.  It  is  possible  enough  that 
this  village  takes  its  name  simply  from  some  Saxon 
pwner,  but  it  is  far  more  satisfactory  to  believe  it 


48  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

was  called  from  the  blessed  Rumbold,  and  that  he 
was  the  original  patron  of  the  church.  He  was  a 
famous  infant  saint,  born  at  King's  Sutton, 
Buckinghamshire,  his  father  a  Northumbrian  king, 
his  mother  a  daughter  of  Penda.  As  soon  as  born 
he  said,  "  I  am  a  Christian  " ;  he  gave  directions 
about  his  baptism,  supplied  the  name  and 
preached  a  sermon ;  but  at  the  end  of  only  three 
days,  having  with  fascinating  modesty  arranged 
which  churches  should  have  the  privilege  of 
enshrining  his  relics  and  for  how  long  each,  this 
precocious  infant  was  dead.  Fuller's  observation 
about  him  is,  "  I  writ  neither  what  I  believe,  nor 
what  I  expect  should  be  believed,  but  what  I  find 
written  by  others."  If,  however,  as  seems  prob- 
able, his  fond  mamma  was  the  interpreter  of 
all  St.  Rumbold  said,  there  is  nothing  at  all 
incredible  about  the  story  of  his  life ;  that  he 
spoke  very  indistinctly  seems  apparent  from  the 
innumerable  different  ways  in  which  his  name  is 
spelt. 

The  first  village  out  on  the  Stane  Street  is 
West  Hampnett,  with  a  peaceful  churchyard 
shadowed  by  large  elms.  The  church  is  of  con- 
siderable interest,  being  partly  of  Roman  brick, 
probably  built  just  before  the  Conquest,  but  the 
narrow  chancel  arch  of  that  character  has  unfor- 
tunately been  removed.  Over  a  little  chapel  in 
the  north-east  corner  of  the  nave  rises  a  tiny 
Early  English  tower  with  shingled  spire.  In  the 
chancel  are  crudely  carved  Tudor  monuments 
of  the  Thatcher  and  Sackville  families.  Bishop 
Durnford  (1870-1895),  who  has  a  fine  monument 
in  the  Cathedral,  rests  in  the  churchyard,  as  also 
his  successor,  Ernest  Wilberforce. 

Chichester  Harbour  comes  to  within  about  a  mile 


CHICHESTER  AND  VICINITY  49 

of  the  city,  and  on  the  tidal  arm  called  Chichester 
Channel  is  the  picturesque  old  Dell  Quay,  whither 
come  sailing  ships  from  the  North  bringing  coal, 
fetching  ballast.*  Hard  by  is  the  home  of  the 
apple-tree,  Appledram,  where  among  peaceful 
meadows  is  a  little  Early  English  Church  with 
Norman  fragments.  The  lancets  have  some 
beautiful  arcading,  two  are  low-side  windows ; 
part  of  the  rood-stair  may  still  be  seen  on  the 
north.  Not  far  off  is  Ryman's  Tower,  a  structure 
twenty  feet  by  twenty-seven,  forming  part  of  a 
pleasant  home.  Its  date  and  materials  are  the 
same  as  those  of  the  Cathedral  bell-tower,  and 
it  seems  that  when  Ryman  knew  that  the  king 
saw  no  occasion  for  his  building  a  fortress  in 
this  quiet  spot  he  devoted  the  stones  he  had 
collected  for  that  purpose  to  the  better  one  of 
supporting  the  bells  that  should  summon  the 
faithful  to  pray  in  their  mother  church  (p.  33). 

A  short  distance  to  the  south-east  is  Donning- 
ton,  whose  little  church  has  an  Early  English 
chancel  and  a  Tudor  tower,  some  open  benches 
with  poppy-heads  remain  in  the  inside.  By  this 
village  is  a  bridge  that  horses  hate,  carrying  the 
road  over  the  canal  that  once  connected  Chichester 
with  Arundel,  and  so  with  the  water-ways  of  all 
the  land  (p.  118).  This  canal,  dug  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  is  now  grass-grown — all  but  a  long 
straight  reach  that  extends  up  to  the  Basin  within 
the  ancient  limits  of  Stockbridge.  Communication 
is  thus  kept  up  between  the  city  and  the  Channel, 
but  water-lilies  and  graceful  swans  are  much 
more  in  evidence  than  shipping. 

*  Dug  from  the  gravels  of  the  Bracklesham  Beds  that 
underlie  the  plain  (p.  75).  Large  pits  are  at  Portfield,  an 
eastern  suburb  of  the  city. 

4 


II.   ThcFc 


l 

-  N  the  course  of  his  magnificent  description 
of  Suthsex,  John  Speed  (Theatre  of  the 
Empire  of  Great  Britaine,  1611)  tells  us: 
"  The  aire  is  good,  though  somewhat 
clouded  with  mists,  which  arise  forth  of  her 
South  bordering  Sea,  who  is  very  prodigall  unto 
her  for  Fish  and  Sea  fowle,  though  as  sparing  for 
Harbours  or  Ship's  ariuage,  and  those  which 
shee  hath,  as  vncertaine  for  continuance  as 
dangerous  for  entrance. 

"  Rich  is  the  Soile  and  yeeldeth  great  plenty  of 
all  things  necessary,  but  very  ill  for  travellers, 
especially  in  the  winter,  the  land  lying  low  and 
the  wayes  very  deep,  whose  middle  tract  is 
garnished  with  meadows,  pastures  and  cornfields : 
the  sea  coast  with  Hilles  which  are  called  the 
Downes  abundantly  yeelding  both  graine  and 
grasse,  and  the  North  side  overshadowed  with 
pleasant  Groves  and  thicke  Woods  where  some- 
times stood  the  famous  wood  Andradswald,  con- 


THE  FAR  WEST  51 

taining  no  less  than  an  hundred  and  twentie 
miles  in  length,  and  thirtie  in  bredth,  taking  the 
name  of  Aiiderida,  a  Citie  adioining  :  both  which 
were  wonne  from  the  Britaines  by  Ella  the  first 
Saxon  King  of  this  Province  and  the  place  made 
fatall  to  Sigebert  King  of  the  West  Saxons, 
who  being  deposed  from  his  Royall  Throne,  was 
met  in  this  Wood  by  a  Swineheard  and  slaine 
in  revenge  of  his  Lord,  whom  Sigebert  had 
murdered. 

"The  commodities  of  this  Province  are  many 
and  divers,  both  in  corne,  cattle,  woods,  iron  and 
glasse,  which  two  last,  as  they  bring  great  gaine 
to  their  Possessors,  so  doe  they  impoverish  the 
County  of  Woods,  whose  want  will  be  found  in 
ages  to  come,  if  not  at  this  present  in  some  sort 
felt. 

"  Great  have  beene  the  devotions  of  religious 
Persons  in  building  and  consecrating  many  houses 
unto  the  use  and  onely  service  of  Christ,  whose 
Beadmen  abusing  the  intents  of  their  Founders 
hath  caused  those  Foundations  to  lament  their 
owne  Ruines :  for  in  the  tempestuous  time  of 
King  Henry  the  eighth,  eighteen  of  them  in  this 
County  were  blown  down,  whose  fruit  fell  into 
the  Lappes  of  some  that  never  ment  to  restore 
them  againe  to  the  like  use. 

"  This  County  is  principally  divided  into  six 
Rapes,  every  of  them  containing  a  River,  a 
Castle  and  Forest  in  themselves." 

On  the  far  west  border,  flowing  through  a 
pleasant  land  not  specially  striking  in  its  scenery, 
for  a  space  forming  the  border  with  Hampshire, 
is  the  little  river  Ems ;  it  was  possibly  called  long 
ago  after  its  more  famous  namesake  near  the 
sea  border  of  the  German  Empire  with  Holland 


52  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

by  Saxon  settlers,  though  it  is  always  a  most 
perilous  proceeding  to  attempt  to  trace  in  detail 
our  connections  with  our  mother-land.  Close  by 
is  the  peaceful  village  of  Westbourne,  which  was 
(according  to  J.  H.  Round  in  Feudal  England) 
the  "  Burna "  where  in  1133  Henry  I.  granted  a 
charter  to  Cirencester  Abbey,  conveying,  with 
others,  the  wide  lands  once  held  by  Reinbold,  or 
Regenbald,  a  priest  who  under  Edward  the 
Confessor  was  the  first  Chancellor  of  England. 
Making  his  peace  with  William  the  Conqueror 
he  was  rewarded  with  a  charter  in  English 
addressed  to  the  old  Saxon  authorities,  bishops 
and  thegns,  confirming  his  possessions  as  full  and 
as  far  as  in  the  days  of  King  Harold,  nor  would 
the  king  suffer  any  man  to  take  from  his  hand 
any  of  the  things  he  had  granted  to  him  in 
his  friendship.  Henry's  charter,  dated  from  this 
village  close  to  a  once-frequented  harbour,  was 
witnessed  by  the  two  archbishops  and  by  many 
high  officials  of  the  realm,  and  the  king  was  on 
the  point  of  leaving  England  destined  never  to 
return.  The  square  bases  of  the  original  Norman 
pillars  of  Westbourne  Church  were  discovered  in 
1865,  but  the  existing  building  was  mostly  the 
work  of  Henry  Fitzalan,  Lord  Maltrevers,  in  the 
early  sixteenth  century ;  his  arms  are  on  a  beam 
in  the  north  porch.  The  tower  is  supported  by 
three  flat  arches  resting  on  heavy  piers,  beyond 
it  are  three  arches  on  either  side  with  Tudor 
mouldings  on  octagonal  pillars.  It  is  an  interest- 
ing example  of  the  very  end  of  English  Gothic 
architecture,  ridiculously  called  "  debased,"  and  at 
first  sight  it  greatly  resembles  Jacobean  work. 
In  1770  another  nobleman,  the  somewhat  eccentric 
George  Montague  Dunk,  Earl  of  Halifax,  after 


THE   FAR  WEST  53 

whom,  when  Secretary  of  State,  the  capital  of 
Nova  Scotia  was  named,  offered  the  parishioners 
to  endow  a  Sunday  afternoon  sermon,  or  to  build 
them  a  spire  of  Stansted  oak.  The  latter  was 
chosen  on  the  ground  that  it  would  always  point 
to  heaven,  which  was  more  than  could  be  abso- 
lutely promised  of  the  sermon.  From  the  point 
of  view  at  least  of  the  picturesqueness  of  the 
village,  whose  most  distinguishing  feature  is  the 
spire  in  question  rising  over  the  trees,  there  is 
no  reason  whatever  why  the  choice  should  be 
deplored.  The  maritime  plain  is  here  about  eight 
or  ten  miles  broad,  deeply  fretted  by  the  ramify- 
ing fjords  of  Chichester  Harbour. 

On  a  spur  of  the  Downs,  and  so  forming  a 
very  conspicuous  landmark,  is  Racton  Tower,  a 
tall  castellated  "folly,"  erected  by  the  same  Lord 
Halifax.  The  strange-looking  building  is  now  a 
hollow  shell,  and  it  is  impossible  to  ascend,  so 
that  the  magnificent  view  which  once  refreshed 
a  Cabinet  Minister  is  at  present  lost  to  the  world, 
though  the  prospect  from  the  base  is  sufficiently 
striking.  From  the  edge  of  the  hills  one  looks 
over  the  flat  plain  bordered  by  the  waters  of 
the  Channel  and  indented  by  the  windings  of  the 
harbours :  all  land  and  sea  from  Chichester  to 
Portsmouth,  with  the  islands  of  Hayling  and 
Thorney,  and  the  ancient  port  of  Bosham,  are 
displayed  as  011  a  map.  In  the  distance  to  the 
right  is  the  Isle  of  Wight,  behind  one  on  the 
Downs  in  the  farthest  border  of  Sussex  spread 
the  Park  and  the  Forest  of  Stansted.  De  Foe 
describes  it  as  "surrounded  with  thick  Woods, 
thro'  which  there  are  the  most  agreeable  Vista's 
cut,  that  are  to  be  seen  any- where  in  England ; 
and  particularly  at  the  West  opening,  which  is 


54  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

from  the  Front  of  the  House,  they  sit  in  the 
dining  Room,  and  see  the  Town  and  Harbour  of 
Portsmouth,  the  ships  at  Spithead,  and  also  at 
St.  Helen's ;  which,  when  the  Royal  Navy  happens 
to  be  there,  is  a  most  glorious  Sight."  There 
was  some  fighting  at  Stansted  House  during  the 
Civil  War ;  its  owner,  Viscount  Lumley,  was  for 
the  King.  On  lower  land,  by  the  little  stream 
of  Racon,  is  Racton,  in  Domesday  Rachitone. 
A  very  tiny  village  it  hides  among  the  trees,  like 
many  hereabout ;  its  Park,  by  the  very  edge  of  the 
Downs,  was  long  the  home  of  the  Gounter  family, 
whose  interesting  monuments  of  the  fifteenth  to 
the  eighteenth  centuries  are  found  in  the  chancel 
of  the  church.  One  of  them  was  mainly  instru- 
mental in  spiriting  along  the  Downs  to  Brighton, 
out  of  the  way  of  his  enemies,  the  Prince  who 
had  had  the  worst  of  it  at  Worcester,  but  was 
afterwards  to  sit  upon  the  throne  and  to  be 
distinguished  as  the  Merry  Monarch.  An  excit- 
ing and  adventurous  journey  it  was.  Wishing  to 
meet  as  few  people  as  possible  they  rode  along 
the  lonely  Downs  ;  despite  his  almost  desperate 
situation  the  closely  cropped  Prince  enjoyed  the 
beauty  of  the  country,  and  on  one  occasion  sus- 
tained the  character  he  had  assumed  by  rebuking 
a  profane  oath  without  a  smile.  The  little  flint 
and  rough-cast  church  at  Racton,  mostly  Perpen- 
dicular, but  with  older  portions,  a  small  wooden 
spire  rising  from  the  west  gable,  is  delightfully 
quaint  within ;  there  are  benches  with  poppy- 
heads  ;  the  chancel  is  very  long  in  proportion  to 
the  nave,  its  walls  lined  with  memorials  to  those 
who  once  worshipped  in  the  little  sanctuary. 
A  rough  old  timber  roof  has  sheltered  many 
generations  of  villagers,  and  will  shelter  many 


THE  FAR  WEST  55 

more ;  over  the  rood-beam  is  a  large  board  painted 
with  Georgian  Royal  Arms,  the  lion  almost 
human  faced. 

Due  south  of  Westbourne,  not  far  off,  is 
Thorney  Island,  Tornei  in  Domesday,  separated 
from  the  mainland  only  by  a  narrow  creek  which 
a  causeway  crosses.  Fairly  wide  channels,  sea 
and  slimy  mud  in  turn,  divide  it  from  Chidham 
Peninsula  to  the  east,  from  Hayling  Island  (in 
Hampshire)  to  the  west.  On  the  east  side  of 
the  island,  wild  flowers  and  grass  underfoot, 
great  elms  towering  overhead,  the  little  village 
of  West  Thorney,  with  only  150  inhabitants,  looks 
across  the  water  to  the  spire  of  Chichester  rising 
over  the  wooded  flats  and  the  downland  spread- 
ing away  beyond.  The  small  ivy-covered  church 
displays  some  excellent  Early  English  work,  it 
is  the  style  that  Sussex  loves  and  counts  pecu- 
liarly her  own.  The  low  tower  with  double  lancets, 
shaft  divided,  is  surmounted  by  a  squat  square 
spire  covered  with  boards  instead  of  the  usual 
shingles.  The  north  aisle  is  taken  down,  the 
arches  are  walled  up,  in  the  chancel  are  two 
lancets  continued  to  form  low-side  windows.  A 
long  controversy  has  tried  to  elucidate  the  precise 
use  of  these  openings,  which  are  particularly 
numerous  in  Sussex,  and  range  in  date  from  the 
early  thirteenth  century  (or  about  the  time  of 
the  rise  of  the  Friars)  to  a  brick  example  of 
Henry  VIII.'s  reign  at  Twineham.  After  a  very 
full  study  of  the  matter  P.  M.  Johnston,  whose 
scholarship  is  an  honour  to  Sussex  archaeology, 
concludes  they  were  for  hearing  confessions, 
particularly  by  the  Friars.  In  some  places  (as 
at  Alfriston)  they  seem  too  high  for  such  a  pur- 
pose, but  the  view  is  considerably  strengthened 


56  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

by  a  passage  from  the  report  of  one  of 
Henry  VIII.'s  commissioners  for  suppressing 
the  monasteries  (quoted  by  P.  H.  Ditchfield). 
"  We  think  it  best  that  the  place  where  these 
friars  have  been  wont  to  hear  outward  confession 
of  all-comers  at  certain  times  of  the  year,  be 
walled  up,  and  that  use  to  be  done  for  ever." 
It  may  be  objected  that  it  must  have  been  any- 
thing but  convenient  for  the  penitent  to  kneel 
in  the  churchyard  exposed  to  the  climate  of 
England  and  the  jeers  of  the  English — for  the 
scoffer  is  no  invention  of  modern  days — but  it 
is  not  for  the  wearers  of  top-hats  and  boiled 
shirts  to  dogmatise  as  to  what  must  have  seemed 
convenient  to  our  less  elegant  sires. 

On  its  own  retired  peninsula,  its  cottages  dating 
largely  from  the  eighteenth  century,  reposing 
amid  chestnuts  and  elms,  peacefully  lies  the  small 
village  of  Chidham.  The  plain  little  Early  English 
church  has  two  west  buttresses  to  support  the 
bell-cot  and  a  north  chapel  opening  by  two  arches 
from  the  nave.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  place 
has  done  nothing  for  the  world.  Arthur  Young  * 
records  how  farmer  Woods  was  one  day  walking 
in  his  fields  and  noticed  growing  by  itself,  where 
it  had  no  business,  in  a  hedgerow  a  particularly 
fine  patch  of  wheat,  possessing  thirty  ears  with 
about  1,400  corns.  When  the  latter  matured 
they  were  planted  with  results  similar  to  those 
given  by  seven  ears  upon  one  stalk  full  and 
good  when  in  days  long  past  ^a  member  of  the 
chosen  race  contrived  the  first  corner  in  wheat. 
So  the  fine  Chidham  corn  became  in  course  of 
time  widely  distributed  and  well  known.  It  is 
white  and  of  a  very  fine  berry,  remarkably  long 
*  Agriculture  of  Stissex,  1808,  p.  82. 


THE  FAR  WEST  57 

in  the  straw,  so  as  to  stand  fully  six  feet  high  at 
times  if  the  summer  chances  to  be  moist,  as 
indeed  most  summers  do. 

Early  in  the  nineteenth  century  efforts  were 
made  to  reclaim  the  shallow  water  between  Chid- 
ham  and  Bosham,  the  once-famed  harbour  over 
which  Harold  and  so  many  others  used  to  sail. 
This  contempt  for  history,  however,  the  very  sea 
resented,  and  in  a  great  storm  during  1822  it 
successfully  vindicated  its  age-long  rights  and 
Bosham  is  still  a  port. 

The  little  town  is  extremely  picturesque,  the 
shingled  church-spire  rises  above  the  red-tiled 
roofs  of  old  houses  irregularly  placed,  the  sea- 
weedy  and  shell -strewn  expanse  of  muddy  harbour 
is  set  off  by  brown  sails  and  green  trees,  small 
boats  are  anchored  or  aground  or  sailing  or 
getting  repaired  in  the  miniature  dry  dock, 
there  are  generally  fishy  smells ;  the  water  at 
high-tide  washes  in  one  place  the  walls  of  houses, 
in  another  the  edges  of  lawns,  on  the  land  side 
spread  grassy  meadows  with  tall  hedges  :  Bosham 
has  a  charm  that  is  all  her  own. 

Numerous  Roman  remains  have  been  found, 
including  foundations  of  buildings  and  two  fine 
white  marble  busts ;  one  is  mentioned  on  p.  105 ; 
another  more  recently  discovered  perhaps  repre- 
sents Germanicus,  or  some  other  member  of  the 
Claudian  house.  Roman  bricks  are  used  in  the 
church,  and  two  large  bases  of  columns  are 
employed  at  the  bottom  of  the  responds  of  the 
chancel  arch,  while  some  hypocaust  tiles  are 
preserved  in  a  case. 

The  first  definite  reference  to  Christianity  in 
Bosham  is  Bede's  frequently  quoted  remark  :  "  but 
all  the  province  of  the  South  Saxons  were 


58  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

strangers  to  the  name  and  faith  of  God.  There 
was  among  them  a  certain  monk  of  the  Scottish 
(i.e.,  Irish)  nation  whose  name  was  Dicul,  who 
had  a  very  small  monastery  at  the  place  called 
Bosanham,  encompassed  with  the  sea  and  woods, 
and  in  it  five  or  six  brothers,  who  served  our 
Lord  in  poverty  and  humility  ;  but  none  of  the 
natives  cared  either  to  follow  their  course  of  life 
or  hear  their  preaching."  The  place  was  associ- 
ated with  Cnut,  and  according  to  one  account  was 
the  spot  where  he  made  his  famous  but  futile 
request  to  the  sea.  His  young  daughter  is  buried 
in  the  church  (south-east  corner  of  the  nave),  and 
her  remains  in  a  stone  coffin  were  exhumed  and 
subsequently  reburied  in  1865.  Like  various  other 
places  in  the  neighbourhood,  Bosham  belonged  to 
the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury,  but  to  Earl 
Godwin  it  was  Naboth's  Vineyard.  John  Smyth,* 
bailiff  of  the  manor,  writing  in  1635,  gives  an 
account  of  the  way  the  Earl  got  hold  of  it  based 
on  Walter  Map.  Godwin  "  beinge  accompanied 
therefore  with  a  great  trayne  of  gentlemen,  hee 
comes  smylinge  and  jestinge  to  the  Archbishopp  of 
Canterbury  whose  towne  then  it  was :  my  Lord, 
saith  hee,  give  you  mee  Boseam,  alludinge  happely 
to  Basium,  that  is,  a  busse,  or  kisse,  used  in  doinge 
homage.  The  Archbishopp  marveylinge  much 
what  hee  demanded  by  that  question,  answered, 
I  give  you  Basiam  :  Then  hee,  forthwith  with  that 
troup  of  his  knights  and  suldiers  fell  downe  (as 
hee  had  before  taken  order)  at  his  feete  and 
kissing  them  with  many  thankes  went  backe  to 

*  Smyth's  History  of  the  Manor  of  Bosham  lies  in  MS. 
at  the  British  Museum,  and  I  am  indebted  for  the  extract  to 
K.  H.  Macdermott's  Bosham  Church :  its  History  and  Anti- 
quities, a  useful  little  handbook, 


THE   FAR  WEST 


59 


Bosham :  kept  possession  of  it  as  lorde  by  stronge 
hand,  and  having  the  testimony  of  his  friends  and 
followers,  praysed  in  defence  of  the  Kinge,  the 
Archbishopp  as  the  donor  thereof  and  hee  held  it 
peacably."  Thus  did  Bosham  become  the  pro- 
perty and  a  usual  residence  of  Godwin.  The 
Bayeux  tapestry  represents  his  son  Harold,  after 
praying  in  the  church  and  feasting  in  his  house 
by  the  sea,  embarking  on  his  mysterious  but 
momentous  expedition  to  the  Continent.  The 
house  has  a  large  hall  on  the  upper  floor  with 


BOSHAM   IN   THE  BAYEUX  TAPESTRY. 

vaulted  rooms  beneath,  the  usual  plan  for  a 
moderate-sized  mediaeval  residence.  The  church 
is  more  conventionally  treated,  but  has  an  arch 
which  slightly  resembles  those  that  open  into  the 
tower  and  the  chancel  of  the  present  building. 

The  oldest  parts  of  the  church  are  certainly  pre- 
Conquest,  but  they  seem  to  be  late  and  to  display 
Norman  influence.  The  chancel  arch  is  a  very 
remarkable  composition ;  using  the  Roman  bases 
already  mentioned,  its  builders  roughly  imitated 
them  for  caps  (or  rather  abaci),  the  clustered 
responds  and  the  mouldings  of  the  arch  resemble 
Norman  work,  but  are  far  from  being  identical 
with  it.  The  Saxon  chancel  is  said  to  have  been 
apsidal  like  that  of  Worth  in  Sussex  ;  one  of  its 


60  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

windows  remains  though  blocked.  The  tower 
arch  is  very  plain,  and  over  it  is  a  triangular- 
headed  doorway  that  may  have  opened  into  a 
gallery.  The  Saxon  stonework  is  of  a  local  Eocene 
limestone  associated  with  the  Bracklesham  beds 
(p.  75).  The  chancel  was  lengthened  and  the 
tower  was  raised  in  Norman  times ;  of  the  former 
work  a  large  window  can  be  seen.  The  upper  part 
of  the  tower  has  double  windows  with  central 
shafts,  the  corbel-table  has  little  arches  cut  in  the 
lintels,  it  is  overlapped  by  the  later  octagonal 
shingled  spire.  Norman,  too,  is  a  pillar  piscina 
in  the  north  aisle. 

This  Norman  work  may  be  due  to  William  of 
Warlewaste,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  to  which  see 
Bosham  church  belonged  from  the  Confessor's 
grant  of  it  to  his  kinsman  Osbern,  who  held 
the  far  western  bishopric  from  1072  to  1103. 
Warlewaste  built  much  of  the  Norman  Cathedral 
at  Exeter,  and  his  transept  towers  still  remain. 
In  1120  he  founded  or  revived  the  College  of 
Prebendaries  at  Bosham,  an  institution  never 
very  famous  for  itsjgood  order,  which  was  the 
subject  of  much  acrimonious  discussion  between 
the  Bishops  of  Exeter  and  Chichester.  Old  walls, 
mostly  of  the  fifteenth  century,  with  a  plain  door- 
way, south  of  the  churchyard  are  probably  relics 
of  its  buildings.  It  was  undoubtedly  to  enhance 
the  dignity  of  the  collegiate  services  that  about  a 
century  after  Warlewaste's  time  the  chancel  was 
further  extended  eastwards.  This  extension  is  a 
superb  piece  of  work ;  the  east  wall  is  pierced  by 
five  lancets  divided  by  mullions  outside  and  with- 
in, having  widely  detached  shafts  of  black  marble 
and  all  comprised  under  a  large  arch;  at  the 
sides  are  double  lancets  very  similarly  treated. 


I 

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THE   FAR  WEST  61 

Part  of  the  same  scheme  of  extension  was  to  pro- 
vide aisles  to  the  nave,  apparently  for  the  first 
time ;  there  are  four  arches  aside,  and  the  round 
pillars  have  foot-ornaments,  some  of  which  display 
reptiles'  heads  ;  on  the  north  over  the  pillars  are 
round  clearstory  windows.  At  the  east  end  of  the 
south  aisle  is  a  crypt,  only  half  underground  and 
so  forming  a  platform  in  the  church  ;  it  is  lighted 
by  two  little  windows  deeply  splayed  downwards 
and  vaulted  in  two  bays  with  plain  ribs  resting 
on  corbels.  It  probably  formed  the  charnel-house. 

The  font  is  a  little  earlier  in  character  than  the 
Early  English  extensions  just  noticed,  it  is  of 
black  marble  and  consists  of  an  octagonal  bowl 
with  shallow  arcading  resting  on  a  round  pillar 
and  four  shafts,  this  method  of  support  being 
very  much  more  usual  for  square  fonts. 

To  the  early  fourteenth  century  belong  the 
present  aisle  windows,  which  are  of  Decorated 
character  but  much  restored,  and  also  sepulchral 
recesses  in  the  south  aisle  and  the  chancel,  the 
latter  having  a  female  recumbent  effigy. 

An  old  legend,  which  A.  Stanley  Cooke,  of 
Brighton,  has  made  the  subject  of  a  poem,  records 
how  the  great  bell  of  Bosham  church  was  cap- 
tured by  Norse  pirates — 

"A  kingly  gift,  'twas  said,  and  kingly  too 
For  size,  for  rich  and  mellow  tone  when  heard 
Anear  or  far,  or  when  at  midnight  deep 
Its  warning  voice,  to  friend  and  foe  alike, 
Would  give  seafarers  pause  and  warrior  watch, 
'Gainst  rock  and  shoal ;  but  most  at  set  of  sun, 
When  o'er  long  level  lands  it  reached  the  sea, 
Bringing  a  sense  of  calm  and  peace,  tho'  all 
Around  reigned  tumult." 

It  was   placed   on  board  their  vessel  and  they 


62  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

were  trying  to  get  away,  but  St.  Nicholas  would 
not  allow  the  Christian  bell  to  be  carried  off  by 
their  pagan  hands,  and  it  sank  in  Bosham  Creek. 
When  the  peal  of  six  bells  (oldest  1572)  is  rung 
to-day,  the  old  tenor  chimes  in  from  the  depths 
of  Bell  Hole.  The  origin  at  any  rate  of  the  last 
part  of  the  legend  is  a  striking  echo  over  the 
water  from  the  West  Itchenor  woods. 

The  ancient  parish  chest,  dating  from  the 
early  thirteenth  century,  contains  a  secret  recess 
in  which  was  found  a  silver  coin  of  Edward  I., 
minted  at  Waterford,  now  preserved  in  the 
church.  In  the  Parish  Register  a  tramp  is  in 
1581  described  as  "a  goer  aboute,"  in  1623  as  "a 
wanderer,"  and  in  1786  as  "  a  traveller." 

During  the  Commonwealth  is  the  following 
detailed  entry,  "  A.D.  1652,  Henry  Grigg,  senr.,  my 
singular  good  friend,  who  was  the  eie,  tongue  and 
very  soul  of  Bossenham,  was  buiried  May  ye  * 
10th,  to  whom  Almighty  God,  infinitely  rich  in 
mercy,  bestowed  in  ye  guifts  of  ye  world,  good 
measure,  in  ye  guifts  of  Nature  pressed  down,  in 
ye  guifts  of  grace  shaken  together,  in  ye  guifts  of 
glory  now  running  over.  Who  as  hee  walked 
hand  in  hand  with  ye  richer  sort,  soe  heart  in 
heart  with  ye  poorer,  to  whose  precious  memory 
these  lines  as  a  marble  monument  are  dedicated  by 
Daniel  Harcourt,  then  Mnr.  of  this  congregation." 

In  the  margin,  however,  some  profane  person 
has  added — 

"Though  Harcourt  heere  above  doe  flatter, 

The  world  have  found  theares  noe  such  matter, 
A  fayre  outside  old  Grigg  did  carie, 

Which  was  the  practice  of  old  Harie ! " 

*  The  "y  "  here  is  simply  a  survival  of  an  old  Runic  letter 
pronounced  "th." 


THE  FAR  WEST  63 

Since  the  days  of  Harold  Godwinson  the  manor 
of  Bosham  has  frequently  changed  hands,  but 
since  1475  it  has  belonged  to  the  Berkeley  family. 
Perhaps  the  most  famous  of  people  born  there 
was  Becket's  companion  and  biographer,  Herbert 
of  Bosham,  who  accompanied  the  Primate  to  the 
Councils  of  Clarendon  and  Northampton  in  1164, 
and  shared  his  exile  abroad.  His  Life  of 
St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury  enjoyed  for  a  time 
extraordinary  popularity,  and  contributed  to 
making  our  Metropolitan  Cathedral  the  chief 
place  of  pilgrimage  in  Northern  Europe.  Tenny- 
son's Becket  contains  a  description  of  Bosham  put 
into  the  mouth  of  Thomas — 

"Better  have  been 

A  fisherman  at  Bosham,  my  good  Herbert, 
Thy  birthplace — the  sea-creek — the  petty  rill 
That  falls  into  it — the  green  field — the  grey  church — 
The  simple  lobster-basket,  and  the  mesh — 
The  more  or  less  of  daily  labour  done — 
The  pretty  gaping  bills  in  the  home-nest 
Piping  for  bread — the  daily  want  supplied — 
The  daily  pleasure  to  supply  it." 

A  walk  across  grass  meadows  with  old  hedges 
and  rather  dirty  streams  (passing  near  an  almost 
ploughed-out  moat  near  Stonewall  Farm,  where  it 
is  rather  absurdly  fabled  that  Vespasian  once 
had  a  palace)  takes  one  to  Fishbourne.  It  is 
almost  a  suburb  of  Chichester,  a  straggling  village 
at  the  top  of  the  next  creek  called  Chichester 
Channel,  on  whose  east  shore  is  Dell  Quay.  Stand- 
ing by  itself  in  the  fields,  but  close  to  the  houses,  is 
the  church,  whose  chancel  is  a  plain  little  Early 
English  structure  with  the  usual  lancets ;  the 
nave,  with  its  span-roof  aisles,  north  transept  and 
wooden  bell-cot  are  modern. 


64  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

The  climate  of  this  district  is  the  mildest  in 
Sussex,  resembling  that  of  the  Isle  of  Wight; 
maize  is  sometimes  grown  for  fodder,  and  in  some 
hot  summers  has  nearly  ripened,  giving  a  very 
foreign  look  to  the  fields.  In  Chichester  a  loquat 
and  a  banana  have  lived  for  some  years,  but  do 
not  produce  any  fruit. 

The  opening  lines  of  Cooke's  Bell  of  Bosham  are 
by  no  means  to  be  taken  as  describing  a  typical 
winter : 

' '  Cold,  dull,  and  overcast,  the  skies  at  length, 
Broke  in  long  weeping  showers  o'er  Bosenham, 
Ending  a  cheerless  month  of  frost  and  gloom." 


El.     The  Manhood 


[     Sidle/ham  Tidal  Mill    \ 

HE  name  Manwode  or  Manhood,  as  it  is 
now  usually  spelt,  seems  to  date  back 
at  any  rate  to  the  time  of  Edward  I. 
No  one  knows  what  it  means  ;  the  pro- 
posal to  connect  it  with  the  Meons  in 
Hampshire  starts  from  a  wild  guess  ;  the  deriva- 
tion "main  wood"  is  equally  unsatisfactory,  and 
could  by  no  possibility  have  been  given  to  the 
district  unless  by  a  most  sarcastic*  person.  The 
Hundred  of  Manhood  includes  the  seven  parishes 
of  Birdham,  West  Itchenor,  West  Wittering,  East 
Wittering,  Earnley,  Selsey,  and  Sidlesham,  or  in 
other  words  the  lands  between  Chichester  and 
Pagham  Harbours.  It  is  a  flat  and  at  first  sight 
perhaps  not  a  particularly  interesting  district,  but 
the  open  sea  in  front  and  the  view  of  the  Downs 
behind  give  it  a  charm  that  has  attracted  numer- 
ous if  somewhat  temporary  immigrants  during  the 
last  few  years.  Nor  is  this  appreciation  anything 
new.  In  the  Manhood  Bishop  Sherburne  built 
himself  a  country  house  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 

5 


66  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

Selsey,  which  stands  near  the  point  of  the  Bill 
named  after  it,  was  originally  an  island,  as  the 
ending  "  ey  "  implies,  and  it  is  said  to  have  derived 
its  name  from  the  seals  that  are  no  longer  there. 
Bede  says  it  was  surrounded  by  the  sea  except  for 
a  narrow  passage  on  the  west ;  Holinshed  refers  to 
"  Selesey,  which  sometime  (as  it  should  seeme) 
hath  heene  a  noble  Hand,  but  now  in  maner  a  By- 
land  or  Penisula,  wherin  the  cheefe  see  of  the 
bishop  of  Chichester  was  holden  by  the  space  of 
three  hundred  twentie  nine  yeares,  and  vnder 
twentie  bishops."  This  state  of  physical  affairs 
was  largely  restored  by  the  storm  of  December, 
1910,  which  remade  Pagham  Harbour. 

Here  in  686,  welcomed  by  ^Ethelwealh,  King  of 
South  Saxony,  preached  Wilfrid,  the  Northumbrian 
Bishop,  who  had  had  practical  demonstration  of 
the  evil  effects  of  paganism  when  almost  wrecked 
upon  the  Sussex  shore,  and  this  was  his  noble 
revenge.  His  biographer,  Eddius  ( Vita  S.  Wilfridi 
Episcopi  Eboracensis),  has  set  forth  in  a  striking 
passage  how  when  Wilfrid,  of  blessed  memory, 
was  returning  from  his  consecration  in  Gaul  the 
vessel  was  thrown  on  to  the  unknown  shore  of  the 
South  Saxons.  The  heathen  wreckers  came  on  to 
seize  their  prey.  But  the  Lord  fought  for  the  few 
against  the  many.  A  stone,  blessed  by  the  people 
of  God  and  hurled  by  a  comrade  of  Wilfrid,  killed 
the  idolatrous  chief  priest  of  the  heathen  standing 
on  a  lofty  mound;  and  the  bishop  himself,  by 
praying,  caused  the  tide  to  return  an  hour  before 
its  wont,  and  so  the  ship  was  refloated  and  safely 
reached  the  Kentish  port  of  Sandwich. 

Now,  driven  forth  by  his  own  people  in  the 
North,  Wilfrid  found  refuge  in  our  province,  "  im- 
pregnable from  the  multitude  of  its  rocks  and  the 


THE  MANHOOD  67 

density  of  its  forests,"  and  like  all  sensible  mission- 
aries in  ancient  and  modern  days,  he  made  strenu- 
ous efforts  to  improve  this  present  world  instead 
of  wholly  confining  his  attention  to  talking  about 
a  better  one.  Coming  from  the  most  prosperous 
part  of  the  country,  he  was  able  to  do  much  to 
advance  and  extend  the  civilisation  of  Sussex  in 
addition  to  his  spiritual  ministrations.  Of  this 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  but  all  good  Sussexians  will 
hesitate  a  moment  before  accepting  as  literally 
true  Bede's  rude  remark  (Eddius  says  nothing 
about  it)  that  their  ancestors  at  that  time  could 
fish  only  for  eels.  Very  strong  evidence  indeed 
would  be  required  to  establish  a  fact  so  very  im- 
probable, and  we  may  suspect  that  we  have  here 
an  early  instance  of  the  opinion  our  northern 
fellow-countrymen  not  seldom  express  as  to  the 
accomplishments  of  the  sluggish  south.  At  the 
very  least  the  South  Saxons  must  surely  have  been 
able  to  fish  for  shrimps,  since  the  late  Latin  word, 
pandle,  seems  possibly  to  have  survived  in  the 
Sussex  dialect  from  Imperial  days.  The  district 
appears  peculiarly  hospitable  to  rather  tall  stories, 
and  one  of  them  is  the  ridiculous  but  often 
repeated  remark,  started  by  some  unknown 
romancer,  whether  wag  or  fool  seems  uncertain, 
that  the  seaside  village  of  Selsey  is  on  the  same 
level  as  the  top  of  the  cathedral  spire ! 

His  associations  with  the  Frisians  and  the  South 
Saxons  form  by  far  the  noblest  incidents  in  the 
life  of  a  great  and  zealous  but  bumptious  and  un- 
lovable bishop.  Eddius's  Life  is  about  as  balanced 
as  a  modern  political  manifesto,  and  we  instinc- 
tively ask  why  Wilfrid  had  so  many  enemies.  His 
papal  bulls  were  by  no  means  treated  in  Northum- 
bria  with  the  respect  for  which  Wilfrid  hoped,  and 


68  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

Eddius  sputters  and  fumes  with  indignation  as  he 
records  the  famous  scene  of  the  rejection  of  the 
judgment  of  the  Pope  (quod  exsecrabilius  erat — 
quod  dictu  horribile  erat — quod  me  enarrantem 
hor?*uit).  The  opinion  of  the  vast  majority  of  his 
countrymen  was  undoubtedly  summed  up  in  the 
remark,  "  He  is  guilty  by  his  own  acknowledgment. 
He  is  worthy  to  be  condemned  if  only  because  he 
prefers  the  judgment  of  Rome  to  ours, — a  foreign 
tribunal  to  that  of  his  own  country."  Montalem- 
bert  (Monks  of  the  West)  well  sums  up  his  life. 
"  Wilfrid  was  the  precursor  of  the  great  prelates, 
the  great  monks,  the  princely  abbots  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  heads  and  oracles  of  national  councils, 
the  ministers  and  lieutenants,  and  often  the  equals 
and  rivals  of  kings.  Many  of  his  enemies  were 
saints  ;  and  of  all  the  holy  bishops  and  abbots  of 
his  time,  so  numerous  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church, 
not  one  was  his  ally,  not  one  held  out  to  him  a 
friendly  hand  in  his  trials  and  combats." 

Here  is  the  real  cause  of  his  unpopularity :  he  was 
the  first  English  prelate  who  wished  to  be  a  prince 
bishop,  and  demanded  for  the  Church  a  kingdom 
that  was  of  this  world  indeed.  The  ideal  was  far 
from  pleasing  to  those  who  loved  Aidan  and 
Cuthbert.  Remembering  that  he  founded  their 
bishopric  the  impression  he  made  on  the  South 
Saxons  was  small,  he  has  almost  no  place  in  the 
folk-lore  of  the  county,  not  a  mediaeval  parish 
church,  nor  even  a  chapel  in  the  cathedral,  is  called 
by  his  name. 

King  JEthelwealh  had  previously  been  persuaded 
to  become  a  Christian  by  Wulfhere,  King  of  the 
Mercians,  who  as  a  christening  gift  presented  him 
with  Meanwari  in  Wessex,  perhaps  the  Hundred  of 
Meon  in  Hampshire,  together  with  the  Isle  of 


THE  MANHOOD  69 

Wight.  The  South  Saxon  King  now  presented  to 
Wilfrid  the  whole  peninsula  of  Selsey  and  much 
more  to  the  north ;  quarter  of  a  thousand  slaves 
were  included  in  the  princely  grant,  and  these  the 
bishop  at  once  set  free.  Professor  Maitland 
(Domesday  Book  and  Beyond)  carefully  analyses 
these  two  gifts,  and  shows  how  extremely  con- 
fused in  the  seventh  century  was  the  line  between 
sovereignty  and  personal  ownership  of  land.  Much 
of  the  Selsey  peninsula  remains  Church  property 
to  this  day. 

Considering  its  great  historical  importance  little 
of  interest  now  remains  at  Selsey.  While  Sussex 
has  gained  upon  the  sea  by  the  filling  up  of  shallow 
fjords,  the  general  line  of  the  coast  has  in  most 
parts  receded,  and  coast  erosion  is  still  an  anxiety 
in  many  places.  It  seems  that  the  whole  of  the 
old  Saxon  settlement,  original  seat  of  the  bishop's 
stool,  is  now  covered  by  the  waves,  though  the  old 
rectory,  called  the  Priory,  at  the  spot  now  known 
as  Church  Norton,  by  the  mouth  of  Pagham  Har- 
bour, is  supposed  to  be  on  the  site  of  Wilfrid's 
College  of  Canons.  It  is  an  interesting  house,  of 
various  dates,  with  some  much-patched  Tudor 
brickwork  of  about  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  The 
bishop's  park  is  gone,  all  but  the  name,  which  now 
describes  (or  at  any  rate  denotes)  a  section  of  the 
sea  ;  it  was  formerly  well  stocked  with  deer,  and 
sundry  poachers  were  attracted,  who  got  most 
elaborately  excommunicated.  In  1407  Bishop 
Robert  Rede  thundered  from  his  fortified  manor 
(or  castle)  at  Amberley  the  following  appalling 
curse :  "  Whereas  it  has  come  to  our  ears,  through 
trustworthy  sources,  that  certain  sons  of  damna- 
tion, whose  names  and  persons  are  unknown, 
seduced  by  a  devilish  spirit  and  abandoning  the 


70  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

fear  of  God,  hunted  in  our  park  at  Selsey  with 
hounds,  nets,  arrows,  and  other  instruments,  on. 
the  night  of  January  31st;  broke  down  the  fences 
of  the  park,  and  dared  to  chase,  slay,  and  carry 
away  deer  and  other  wild  animals  therein ;  all  and 
singular  such  persons  are  adjudged  to  have  in- 
curred the  greater  excommunication,  to  be  pro- 
nounced upon  them  in  every  church  of  the  deanery 
with  upraised  cross,  bells  ringing,  and  candles 
lighted." 

This  meant  that  the  priest  in  church  must 
solemnly  declare,  "  By  the  authority  of  God  the 
Father  Almighty  and  His  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  Mary  the  blessed  Mother  of  God  and  all  the 
saints  male  and  female,  we  canonically  excommuni- 
cate, anathematize,  and  cut  off  from  the  privileges 
of  Holy  Church,  those  malefactors,  their  aiders  and 
abettors,  and  unless  they  repent  and  offer  satisfac- 
tion, may  their  candle  be  put  out  before  the  living 
God  for  ever  and  ever !  So  be  it :  so  be  it. 
Amen."  At  the  same  time,  suiting  the  action  to 
the  word,  he  dramatically  flung  down  a  lighted 
candle,  making  a  horrid  mess  on  the  chancel  floor 
with  the  grease.  However,  the  net  result  of  all 
the  intemperate  language  and  the  picturesque 
symbolism  does  not  seem  to  have  been  more 
serious  than  that  of  the  curse  in  the  Jackdaw  oj 
liheims,  or  when  present-day  squires  sometimes 
use  expressions  equally  dramatic  upon  hearing 
of  similar  trespasses  on  their  property  and  cannot 
catch  the  offenders.  Men  gradually  became  rather 
amused  than  inconvenienced  by  the  thunders  of 
the  Church  when  hurled  merely  to  protect  epis- 
copal game.  Far  otherwise  indeed  when  they  had 
only  been  used  "  To  break  the  heathen  and  uphold 
the  Christ 


THE  MANHOOD  71 

The  site  of  the  old  church,  near  the  Priory,  is 
close  to  the  new  mouth  of  Pagham  Harbour. 
Numerous  British  coins,  including  gold  ones  in  a 
very  perfect  state,  some  of  them  of  early  date,  have 
been  found  in  the  vicinity.  Excavations  in  1911 
proved  the  adjacent  earthwork  to  be  composed 
chiefly  of  shingle,  which  is  in  fact  the  natural  soil. 
A  local  tradition  that  it  was  made  to  resist  the 
Spanish  Armada  seems  to  be  perfectly  correct. 
Within  the  entrenchments  were  found  undoubted 
but  slight  traces  of  rough  Roman  building,  pro- 
bably some  sort  of  station  to  guard  the  harbour 
mouth.  But  the  remains  of  walling,  &c.,  were  so 
scanty  as  to  suggest  either  that  something  pre- 
vented the  works  from  ever  being  completed  or 
that  they  were  extensively  raided  to  build  the 
church.  There  was  found,  however,  a  unique 
Saxon  bronze  belt-tag  of  the  tenth  century. 

In  the  churchyard  remains  the  old  chancel,  a 
plain  Early  English  building  with  a  carved  monu- 
ment of  1537  to  John  and  Agatha  Lewes.  The  rest 
of  the  sacred  edifice,  nave  and  aisles,  with  plain 
Early  English  arcades,  Perpendicular  roof  timbers 
with  moulded  tie-beams  and  other  antiquities, 
including  two  stones  with  curious  carved  scroll- 
work that  may  be  Saxon,  has  moved  with  the 
great  bulk  of  the  population  to  the  new  village, 
which  is  practically  at  the  Bill.  Below  insignifi- 
cant cliffs  of  clayey  earth  is  a  shingly  beach  with 
many  boulders  of  the  Selsey  mixen  rock  whose 
fossils  show  it  to  belong  to  the  Upper  Eocene 
period. 

Bungalows  and  a  large  hotel  that  look  straight 
over  the  Channel  are  features  of  the  place,  the 
beautiful  proliferous  pink  (Dianthus  prolifer)  grows 
in  the  vicinity,  but  is  rare ;  there  is  good  sea 


72  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

bathing,  and  the  village  has  not  yet  taken  on  the 
character  of  a  regular  town.  Its  chief  title  to 
repute  was  once  derived  largely  from  the  factory 
of  mouse-traps,  which  were  made  of  the  wood  of 
beech  on  a  plan  particularly  ingenious,  useful,  effec- 
tive, and  humane.  It  may  probably  be  affirmed 
that  more  people  have  heard  of  Selsey  for  its  mouse- 
traps than  ever  knew  of  its  Bishop's  see.  Nor  is 
this  by  any  means  an  inadmissible  title  to  fame, 
for,  as  Emerson  once  wrote,  "  If  a  man  can  write  a 
better  book,  preach  a  better  sermon,  or  make  a 
better  mouse-trap  than  his  neighbour,  though  he 
build  his  house  in  the  woods,  the  world  will  make  a 
beaten  path  to  his  door."  It  was  not  wholly  how- 
ever with  the  object  of  handling  mouse-trap  freights 
that  the  world  as  represented  by  a  commercial  com- 
pany built  a  light  railway  from  Chichester  to  Selsey. 
The  two  harbours  that  we  now  call  after 
Chichester  and  Pagham  were  known  as  Wyder- 
yng  and  Underyng  in  earlier  days.  The  latter  was 
very  possibly  the  port  used  by  .ZElla  and  his  Saxons 
when  they  landed  in  477,*  there  is  still  a  farm 
named  Kynor,  which  may  perhaps  represent 
Cymenes-ora.  Dallaway,  in  his  well  -  known 
Western  Sussex,  says  that  "  the  Nonee  Roll,  in  1345, 
bears  indubitable  testimony  that  the  whole  of 
Pagham  Harbour  was  occasioned  by  a  sudden 
eruption  of  the  sea  not  many  years  prior  to  that 
date,"  a  mistake  that  has  misled  many.f  Most 

*  According  to  the  Chronicle,  on  whose  early  dates  it  is 
well  not  to  place  too  much  reliance. 

t  Even  including  the  new  llth  (Cambridge,  1911)  edition 
of  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica.  Apart  from  early  mention 
of  the  harbour  it  is  very  clear  from  an  inspection  of  the  site 
that  there  must  have  been  reclamation  on  a  large  scale 
before  the  sea  could  break  in. 


THE  MANHOOD  73 

of  Underyng  Harbour  is  in  the  parish  of  Selsey. 
Little  by  little  small  bits  round  its  fretted  shores, 
where  the  water  was  temptingly  shallow,  were 
being  inned  by  the  occupiers  of  adjoining  land,  and 
banks  for  this  purpose  are  visible  in  many  parts. 
At  length,  in  1873,  was  passed  Pagham  Harbour 
Reclamation  Act,  and  in  1876  the  great  barrier 
across  the  mouth  being  finished  the  whole  of  its 
extent  became  the  pasture-ground  of  cattle  instead 
of  the  anchoring-place  of  ships.  This  bucolic  state 
of  affairs  lasted  till  the  storm  of  December,  1910, 
when  the  sea  once  more  broke  in  and  reduced  the 
land  area  of  the  British  Empire  by  several  hundred 
acres.  The  catastrophe  had  been  prophesied  in  an 
article  in  the  S.A.C.  by  J.  Ca vis-Brown,  to  which 
this  chapter  is  beholden.  It  was  curious  to  see  the 
salt  water  lapping  over  the  grass  fields  along  the 
new  coast-line,  fences,  ditches,  and  the  light  railway 
line  plunging  under  the  sea,  though  the  high  em- 
banked road  was  still  dry.  Flooded-out  moles 
walked  helplessly  on  the  grass  by  the  shore,  an 
easy  prey  to  dogs ;  huge  flocks  of  seagulls  floated 
overhead,  swooping  down  at  intervals  to  pick  up 
dead  fresh-water  fish  and  rejoicing  in  the  extension 
of  their  legitimate  domain. 

Thus  again  was  the  salt  water  brought  up  to  the 
picturesque  old  quay  by  Sidlesham  Mill,  worked  by 
the  power  of  the  tides.  One  Woodroffe  built  it 
originally,  then  it  was,  as  a  tablet  informs  us, 
"  Rebuilt  1755  the  buildings  directed  and  machinery 
invented  by  Benia  Barlow."  It  is  a  large  compact 
brick  building  on  a  creek  of  the  harbour,  and  at 
one  time  had  an  immense  business,  sending  out 
great  quantities  of  flour.  For  superiority  of  parts 
and  justness  of  principle  it  was,  in  the  opinion 
of  Hay  (History  of  Chichester,  1804),  inferior  to 


74  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

none  in  the  kingdom.  It  had  three  water-wheels, 
eight  pairs  of  stones,  and  a  fan  for  cleansing  corn  ; 
it  could  grind  a  whole  load  of  wheat  in  an  hour.  It 
is  now  disused,  dismantled,  and  dilapidated. 

Sidlesham  Church  has  lost  its  chancel,  which  to 
judge  by  the  remains  of  arches  in  the  transept  wall 
seems  to  have  had  double  aisles.  The  transepts  are 
now  hip-roofed,  which  gives  a  singular  effect ;  each 
has  two  lancets  north  and  south.  The  central 
arches  with  the  tower  are  removed,  but  their  exist- 
ence is  indicated  by  cracks  in  the  spandrels  of  the 
nave  arcades,  which  have  lost  their  abutments. 
On  each  side  are  three  lancet  arches  rising  from 
tall  round  pillars  with  foot  ornaments.  There  are 
traces  of  frescoes.  All  this  is  Early  English,  the 
oldest  part  being  the  chancel  arches,  one  of  which 
seems  to  have  been  round.  A  poor  Tudor  tower 
has  been  built  at  the  west  end ;  the  east  wall  shows 
signs  of  seventeenth-century  patching,  and  there 
are  graves  of  that  period  over  the  site  of  the 
chancel.  Neatly  scratched  on  a  window-jamb  is 
"  1596.  R.I.C."  The  harbour  was  formerly  a  great 
resort  of  cockles,  one  of  the  four  famous  things  of 
Sussex — which  are  Arundel  mullet,  Chichester 
lobster,  Selsey  cockle,  and  Amberley  trout.  The 
cockle  (Cardium  edule)  is  a  heart-shaped  bivalve 
which  burrows  with  its  large  foot  in  the  sand  or 
mud  and,  leaving  an  air-hole  above  its  resting- 
place,  is  captured  without  the  slightest  difficulty. 

A  tiny  stream  flows  into  the  harbour  remarkable 
for  its  devious  course,  as  if  anxious  to  avoid  the  sea 
for  as  long  as  it  possibly  can.  Holinshed  describes 
it :  "  Erin  riseth  of  sundrie  heads,  by  east  of  Erin- 
leie,  and  directing  his  course  toward  the  sunne 
rising,  it  peninsulateth  Seleseie  towne  on  the 
south-west  and  Pagham  at  north-west."  Erinleie 


THE  MANHOOD  75 

or  Earnley  is  a  small  and  scattered  village  where,  in 
their  proper  season,  primroses  grow  along  every 
hedgerow;  in  a  clump  of  tall  elms  a  colony  of 
rooks  have  their  home.  There  is  a  little  church  of 
fourteenth  century  date,  its  nave  and  chancel  have 
no  arch  between,  they  seem  to  be  built  separately 
and  their  walls  not  bonded  together.  The  piscina 
has  an  original  shelf  of  wood.  Close  by  is  Brackle- 
sham  Bay,  with  a  good  bathing  beach.  It  has 
given  its  name  to  beds  of  shingle  and  sand  that 
underlie  the  maritime  plain,  and  seem  to  date  from 
a  time  when  the  sea  laved  the  foot  of  the  Downs. 
The  Bracklesham  sands  are  full  of  the  drifted 
fruits  of  the  nipa  palm ;  turtles,  crocodiles,  sea 
snakes,  and  large  sharks,  or  rather  their  fossilised 
remains,  also  occur.  The  bay  is  perhaps  the  best 
place  to  study  them. 

What  village  there  is  at  East  Wittering  is  close 
to  the  sea,  and  a  short  distance  inland  stands  all  by 
itself  among  the  fields  its  little  Norman  church, 
altered  as  such  buildings  usually  are  in  later  days, 
but  retaining  an  interesting  door  with  a  sort  of 
herring-bone  pattern  round  the  arch,  the  stone 
formed  almost  wholly  of  tiny  fossils.  A  very  short 
distance  west  is  Cakeham  House  (pronounced 
Kakham),  which  was  an  ancient  possession  of  the 
See  of  Chichester,  where  once  the  bishops  lived 
when  anxious  to  enjoy  some  sea  air,  or  when  super- 
vising this  part  of  their  diocese.  There  are  some 
buildings  erected  by  Bishop  Sherburne  *  (p.  34),  who 
seems  specially  to  have  loved  this  place,  and  his 
spirit  broods  over  it  still.  They  are  entirely  of 

*  For  particulars  of  Sherburne  I  am  indebted  to  Canon 
Deedes,  who  holds  one  of  the  Wykehamical  prebends  he  in- 
stituted, and  whose  researches  into  Chichester  archives  are 
well  known  ;  also  to  Dean  Stephens's  South  Saxon  See. 


76  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

brick,  which  was  his  favourite  material*  An 
oblong  structure  of  two  stories  still  retains  its 
plain  ribbed  vault  below  and  timber  roof  above  ; 
there  are  traces  of  the  existence  of  an  extensive 
country  house  where  now  is  merely  a  small  one. 
The  chief  feature  is  a  tower  with  a  large  turret  on 
one  side  resting  on  a  squinch  arch,  a  wooden  stair 
winds  up  to  the  top.  Battlements  and  a  chimney 
mark  the  skyline,  and  though  string  courses  and 
square-headed  windows  are  very  plain,  the  general 
effect  is  striking  and  picturesque.  At  the  bottom 
one  might  be  in  the  middle  of  the  Fens,  but  from 
the  top  of  the  tower  appears  a  magnificent  prospect 
embracing  a  wide  stretch  of  sea — the  Isle  of  Wight, 
Chichester  Harbour,  Hayling,  and  Portsmouth, 
with  the  flat  plain  stretching  up  to  the  South 
Downs  and  the  cathedral  spire  (which  in  an 
American  city  would  be  overtopped  by  the  lowest 
sky-scrapers)  dominating  the  peaceful  landscape. 
Here,  perhaps,  Sherburne  often  sat  as  the  life  of 
the  Middle  Ages  in  which  all  his  ideas  had  been 
formed  was  rapidly  ebbing  away.  Over  the  sea  in 
front  of  him  Columbus  had  sailed  to  the  New 
World,  Vasco  da  Gama  to  the  more  distant  Asian 
shore.  Yet  in  some  ways  his  ideas  were  far  in 
advance  of  his  age  :  the  precision  of  his  instructions 
on  all  sorts  of  points  connected  with  his  numerous 
and  admirable  charities,  for  instance  that  certain 
documents  should  be  kept  in  a  box  of  adequate  size 
and  not  exposed  to  erasure  through  folding,  shows 
a  foresight  characteristic  of  the  best  minds  of  the 
present  age.  Decidedly  modern,  too,  is  his  ideal 
for  the  Master  of  the  Grammar  School  which  he 
founded  in  his  native  village,  Rolleston  in  Stafford- 
shire. He  must  be  patient,  and  as  far  as  possible 
distribute  his  mind  into  as  many  parts  as  there  are 


THE   MANHOOD  77 

ears  and  minds  among  his  scholars,  inasmuch  as  he 
is  a  debtor  to  them  all.  But  as  first  emotions  are 
not  in  our  power,  if  the  master  is  conscious  of 
getting  a  little  angry,  let  him,  after  Plato's 
example,  pass  over  the  boy  who  is  annoying  him 
and  ask  some  other  scholar  the  question  or  think 
of  a  new  question  to  ask,  till  his  temper  is  a  little 
cooled,  for  it  does  not  become  a  teacher  who  is  to 
plant  good  morals  in  his  pupils  to  be  lame  in  his 
own  moral  conduct.  It  is  vulgar  and  base  when 
the  fault  that  a  teacher  reproves  can  be  charged 
against  himself.  The  mind  in  infancy  is  like  a 
blank  tablet,  its  blindness  must  be  enlightened  by 
reason  rather  than  force.  The  teacher  should 
therefore  carefully  scrutinise  the  intellect  of  each 
boy,  and  exercise  it  gradually,  beginning  with  the 
lighter  tasks,  and  acting  on  the  traditional  dictum 
of  Hippocrates,  the  physician,  that  nature  should 
be  led  along  the  path  on  which  it  started  ;  if  the 
intellect  is  lively  the  instructor  may  venture  to 
load  it  a  little  more  heavily.  The  master  should  be 
with  his  pupils  as  a  father  with  his  sons,  and  Sher- 
burrie  anticipated  Roger  Ascham  in  pointing  out 
the  value  of  hearty  commendation. 

Everything  we  hear  about  the  bishop  is  not  to 
his  praise,  an  instance  of  which  is  supplied  by  his 
forgery  of  a  papal  bull  appointing  himself  to  the 
See  of  St.  David's.  His  was  not  the  fire  of  Wilfrid, 
nor  the  saintliness  of  Richard,  nor,  perhaps,  the 
learning  of  Pecock  ;  a  careful  prelate  rather  of  the 
Parker  type  rises  before  our  eyes  as  we  study  his 
life.  He  had  held  offices  of  many  kinds,  and  always 
sedulously  taken  care  not  to  get  into  any  unneces- 
sary difficulties.  We  see  in  him  much  of  the 
caution  that  so  marked  a  later  generation  of  pre- 
lates (now  happily  passing  away),  who  intensely 


78  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

disliked  any  expression  to  which  a  definite  meaning 
could  be  attached.  A  Devonshire  coachman  work- 
ing for  a  Sussexian  exactly  fulfilled  their  ideal,  and 
once  surpassed  himself  by  the  way  he  stood  a  volley 
of  questions  from  a  stranger  who  wished  to  know 
about  a  road.  He  was  sitting  on  the  box  of  a  dog- 
cart at  Hay  ward's  Heath  Station,  from  which 
emerged  a  passenger,  who  asked — 

"  Which  of  these  roads  leads  to  Cuckfield  ?  " 

"  Both  of  'em,  sir." 

"  Which  is  the  shortest  ?  " 

"  Both  about  the  same,  sir." 

"  Which  is  the  best  road  ?  " 

"  Not  much  difference,  sir." 

"  Which  is  the  most  convenient  to  take  ?  " 

"Well,  sir.  Some  says  one,  some  says  the 
other." 

"  But  which  do  you  consider  the  best  ?  " 

"  Well,  sir.  I  can't  rightly  say  I  ever  considered 
the  question." 

Something  of  this  cautious  spirit  pervades  the 
letter  of  Bishop  Sherburne  to  Thomas  Cromwell. 

"  After  my  most  hearty  recommendations,  with 
like  thanks  for  your  manifold  kindnesses  shewed 
unto  me  in  times  past :  Pleaseth  it  you  to  be  adver- 
tised that  upon  Sunday,  viz.,  the  13th  day  of  this 
instant  month  of  June,  after  such  small  talent  as 
God  hath  lent  me,  I  preached  the  word  of  God 
openly  in  my  Cathedral  Church  of  Chichester,  and 
also  published  there  the  King's  most  dreadful  com- 
mandment concerning  (with  other  things)  the  uniting 
of  the  supreme  head  of  the  Church  of  England  unto 
the  Imperial  Crown  of  this  realm ;  and  also  the 
abolishing  and  secluding  out  of  this  realm  the 
enormities  and  abuses  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome's 


THE  MANHOOD  79 

authority  usurped  within  the  same.  And  likewise 
have  sent  forth  my  suffragan  to  preach  and  publish 
most  speedily  the  same  in  the  most  populous  towns 
within  my  diocese.  And  further,  have  proceeded 
that  by  this  day  at  the  furthest,  there  is  neither 
Abbot,  Prior,  Dean,  Archdeacon,  Provost,  Parson, 
Vicar,  nor  Curate  within  my  diocese  but  they  have 
commandment  to  publish  the  same  in  their 
churches  every  Sunday  and  solemn  Feast  accord- 
ingly. And  as  much  as  in  me  is  I  shall  see  and 
cause  them  to  continue  in  doing  of  their  duty  in 
this  behalf.  Most  heartily  desiring  you  the  King's 
highness  that  it  may  please  his  Grace,  considering 
my  age  and  impotency,  that  the  further  doing  of 
these  promises  by  other  sufficient  persons,  may  be 
sufficient  for  my  discharge  in  this  behalf.  And  if 
it  shall  please  you  to  particularly  advertise  me  of 
the  King's  pleasure  herein,  ye  shall  bind  me  to  do 
you  any  pleasure  that  lieth  in  my  little  power. 
And  thus  fare  ye  most  heartily  well. 
"  From  Selsey,  28th  June, 

"  Your  bounden  orator, 

ROBT.   ClCESATR." 

It  was  in  these  parts  that  St.  Richard  during 
a  famine  miraculously  fed  three  thousand  poor 
people  with  a  very  inadequate  supply  of  beans ; 
such  at  least  is  the  tradition,  and  further,  he  is 
credited  with  the  building  of  the  parish  church, 
which  is  at  West  Wittering.  It  is  a  fine  Early 
English  structure  of  two  or  three  slightly  different 
periods,  the  whole  of  which  one  would  have  been 
inclined  to  date  earlier  than  St.  Richard's  time, 
but  only  by  about  thirty  years.  Now  no  fact 
more  remarkably  demonstrates  the  unity  of 
mediaeval  Christendom  than  the  practically  con- 


80  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

temporary  development  of  Gothic  architecture 
through  the  centuries  over  Western  Europe  from 
Norway  to  Spain,  France  being  the  centre  of 
inspiration.  Local  differences  of  vast  importance 
indeed  exist,  but  they  are  much  less  striking  than 
the  general  uniformity.  It  is  extraordinary  that 
even  remote  village  churches  may  be  so  exactly 
dated  by  the  evidence  of  their  very  stones.  Never- 
theless old  forms  may  have  lasted  on  at  times 
more  than  has  been  realised,  and  it  would  be 
rash  dogmatically  to  assert  that  no  part  of  this 
church  was  St.  Richard's  work. 

The  chancel  is  separated  from  its  large  south 
chapel  by  two  round  arches  with  Early  English 
mouldings,  and  they  rest  on  a  beautiful  round 
pillar  of  Purbeck  marble.  Its  windows  are  lancets, 
a  little  later  than  the  arcade,  the  two  in  the  east 
wall  alone  are  shafted.  The  nave  has  south  aisle 
with  arcade  of  four  pointed  arches,  pillars  octagonal 
and  round,  the  abaci  square,  the  caps  curiously 
carved  with  fleur-de-lis,  volutes,  and  foliage.  On 
the  north  is  a  low  tower,  with  two  lancets  in 
each  face,  and  a  squat  square  spire ;  the  old  timber 
bell-staging  starts  from  the  ground  and  has  an 
extremely  solid  wooden  stair.  In  the  chancel  are 
two  remarkable  sixteenth-century  tombs  of  the 
Ernie  family,  both  with  panelling  and  bas-reliefs, 
one  of  which  is  inscribed  with  the  prayer:  "  By  .  .  . 
crose  &  passyon  delyver  us  Lord  Th  .  .  .  cryst." 
The  nave  has  some  old  benches  with  fine  poppy- 
heads  ;  the  chancel  has  stalls  with  traceried  fronts 
and  misereres,  the  Tudor  rose  being  conspicuous. 
There  is  also  an  old  panel  pierced  by  tiny  arched 
holes  that  may  have  been  part  of  a  confessional. 
In  the  chapel  is  a  little  coffin-slab  with  a  cross  and 
crozier,  perhaps  the  grave  of  a  boy  bishop  (p.  181). 


THE  MANHOOD  81 

Two  miles  north,  by  extremely  rough  lanes,  is 
West  Itchenor,  where  the  country  is  slightly 
undulating  and  fairly  wooded,  the  effect  of  which 
along  the  shores  of  the  harbour,  particularly  by 
the  ferry  across  the  Chichester  Channel  to  the 
Bosham  peninsula,  is  rather  attractive,  at  any 
rate  when  the  tide  is  high.  The  little  Early 
English  church  of  Itchenor  has  a  round  arched 
south  door,  the  dripstone  corbels  being  heads 
turned  upside  down ;  there  are  three  coffin-slabs 
with  crosses.  The  Gentleman  s  Magazine  for  1803 
has  an  account  of  Itchenor,  in  the  course  of  which 
we  learn :  "  The  land  is  in  general  a  strong  loam, 
which  is  much  improved  by  chalking,  and  produces 
large  crops  of  wheat.  The  village  consists  of  two 
public-houses  and  a  few  cottages  near  the  sea. 
The  Duke  of  Richmond  has  a  neat  house  and 
pleasure-grounds  adjoining  the  street,  with  a  hot- 
bath  on  the  shore.  A  few  years  past  the  Belvidere 
and  the  ill-fated  Halswell,  Indiamen,  were  built 
here ;  and  about  three  years  ago  a  vessel  on 
a  new  construction,  carrying  five  masts,  was  built 
here ;  but  nothing  has  been  attempted  since." 

The  next  village  to  the  east  is  Birdham,  close 
to  which  the  Chichester  and  Arundel  Canal  (p.  49) 
enters  the  harbour,  locked  on  account  of  the  tide. 
There  is  a  little  church  with  tower,  nave, 
chancel,  and  porch,  chiefly  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  No  mediaeval  church  is  without  interest, 
but  this  one  is  not  specially  remarkable  in  any 
way. 


"  AWAY  to  sweet  Felpham,  for  Heaven  is  there  ; 
The  Ladder  of  Angels  descends  through  the  air  ; 
On  the  turret  its  spiral  does  softly  descend, 
Through  the  village  then  winds,  at  my  cot  it  does  end. 

You  stand  in  the  village  and  look  up  to  heaven  ; 
The  precious  stones  glitter  on  flight  seventy-seven  ; 
And  my  brother  is  there,  and  my  friends  and  thine 
Descend  and  ascend  with  the  bread  and  the  wine. 

The  bread  of  sweet  thought  and  the  wine  of  delight 
Feed  the  village  of  Felpham  by  day  and  by  night, 
And  at  his  own  door  the  bless'd  hermit  does  stand, 
Dispensing  unceasing  to  all  the  wide  land." 

BLAKE,  to  Mrs.  Flaxman. 

ON  the  shores  of  the  venerable  and  recently 
restored  harbour  that  is  now  called  after  it  is 
the  scattered  village  of  Pagham,  with  very  slight 
traces  of  an  old  house  belonging  to  the  Archbishops 

82 


BOGNOR  83 

of  Canterbury,  to  whom  the  place  was  given  by 
Wilfrid.  A  large  thatched  barn  has  every 
appearance  of  having  been  built  with  the  materials, 
there  is  otherwise  nothing  more  than  irregularity 
in  the  surface  of  the  ground.  The  church,  dedicated 
to  Thomas  a  Becket  and  built  very  shortly  after 
his  canonisation  in  1172  (but  with  older  portions), 
is  a  large  Early  English  structure  with  north-west 
tower,  nave  having  both  aisles  and  transepts,  and 
chancel.  The  pillars  are  round  and  the  arches 
heavy,  both  chancel  and  transepts  have  triple 
lancets,  the  former  with  shafts  and  dog-tooth, 
now  containing  old  German  glass.  The  double 
piscina,  with  shaft  and  square  head,  has  the  most 
unusual  arrangement  of  a  little  gargoyle  outside 
for  its  drain.  The  church  is  very  much  spoilt  by 
vulgar  restoration  and  colour-wash.  In  the  south 
transept  is  a  tablet  to  Edwarde  Darrell  (1575), 
whose  rampant  lion  is  of  a  distinctly  comic 
character.  The  wife  of  the  minister  intruded 
during  the  Commonwealth  was  named  Polyxena, 
and  her  tablet  tells  us  she  was  "  omni  virtute 
cumulata " ;  and  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  do 
not  read  Latin  there  is  added — 

"She  was  a  loyal  and  a  loveing  wife 
And  lived  a  gratious  and  a  godly  life 
Now  here  she  rests  in  hope  still  looking  for 
The  glorious  comeing  of  hir  Saviour." 

The  nave  roof  is  dated  1682,  the  shingled  spire 
surmounted  by  a  singular  eighteenth-century 
ornament  of  lead  rises  above  the  trees,  and  forms 
a  landmark  far  over  the  flats. 

Most  of  the  people  of  Pagham  live  in  its  hamlet 
of  Nyetimber,  and  here,  built  up  into  Barton  or 
Manor  Farm,  is  what  appears  to  be  the  aula  or 


84  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

hall  of  a  Saxon  thane.  While  the  somewhat 
numerous  pre-Conquest  features  in  Sussex  churches 
are  of  late  character,  and  few  probably  belong  to 
an  earlier  period  than  that  of  Edward  the 
Confessor,  a  considerably  greater  antiquity  may 
reasonably  be  claimed  for  this  simple  structure. 
Its  internal  dimensions  (as  measured  by  P.  M. 
Johnston)  are  18  ft.  10J  in.  by  17  ft.  6  in.,  its 
walls  where  visible  are  of  rudest  herring-bone 
masonry,  splinters  of  Bognor  rock  and  boulders 
of  many  different  kinds  from  the  beach  being  set 
with  wide  joints  in  excellent  mortar,  the  thickness 
of  the  walls  2  ft.  10  in.  There  is  an  original  but 
altered  doorway  on  the  north,  and  on  the  south, 
going  straight  through  the  wall,  an  extremely 
neat  round  arch  of  Chara  limestone  (Eocene  age), 
the  tympanum  filled  in  with  ashlar,  but  110  traces 
of  jambs  below.  This  arch  is  such  a  contrast  to 
the  walling  as  to  suggest  the  possibility  of  its 
being  an  insertion.  The  hall  is  now  divided  by 
a  floor,  and  its  original  features  are  so  entirely 
buried  that  an  unobservant  person  might  live  in 
the  house  for  some  time  without  realising  that 
it  contained  the  skeleton  of  a  chamber  resembling 
that  through  which  flew  the  sparrow  which 
served  as  text  for  the  famous  parable  of  the 
Northumbrian  thane  about  the  preaching  of 
Christian  missionaries.  Less  than  five  miles  off 
in  a  straight  line,  near  Aldingbourne,  is  a  flat- 
topped  mound  and  a  ditch  that  formed  the  head- 
quarters of  a  Saxon  landowner  in  yet  more 
primitive  days,  when  their  houses  were  of  wattle ; 
the  wood  that  nearly  conceals  it  is  called  Toat 
Copse.  A  short  distance  north-west  of  the  old 
hall  at  Barton,  forming  part  of  the  same  buildings, 
is  an  Early  English  chapel  with  trefoiled  piscina, 


BOGNOR  85 

and  the  wall  over  the  three  eastern  lancets  has 
the  curious  peculiarity  of  herring-bone  work. 

An  early  thirteenth-century  vicar  of  North 
Mundham  (three  miles  north)  was  reported  by  his 
steward  to  Bishop  Ralph  Neville  for  having  two 
wives  and  pretending  to  possess  a  dispensation 
from  the  Pope.  The  church  he  served  is  an 
Early  English  building,  with  plain  foot  ornaments 
to  some  of  the  round  pillars,  and  pretty  little 
lancets  in  the  aisles ;  the  upper  part  of  the  tower 
is  later,  the  chancel  is  modern.  There  are  brass 
inscriptions  to  Thomas  Bowyer,  citizen  and  grocer 
of  London,  1538,  two  of  his  descendants  and 
others.  The  Bowyers  for  a  time  occupied  Ley  thorn 
House  in  the  parish,  built  by  Bishop  Sherburne, 
but  now  destroyed. 

Close  by,  buried  in  trees,  is  the  little  hamlet 
of  Runcton,  whose  manor  house  was  once  a  cell 
to  the  Norman  Abbey  of  Troarn,  founded  to  look 
after  English  estates.  In  1260  the  daughter  house, 
Bruton  Priory  in  Somerset,  took  over  the  land, 
and  then  Runcton  became  merely  a  grange.  Its 
old-fashioned  garden  has  a  lawn  bounded  by  an 
ancient  mill-stream,  straightened  and  broadened, 
and  just  below  is  a  little  island  on  which  grow 
two  large  willows,  whose  red  roots  sway  about 
in  the  water  the  whole  way  round.  The  general 
effect  is  almost  like  a  little  piece  of  East  Anglia 
stranded  in  Sussex. 

Merston  has  a  small  towerless  church  of  the 
usual  plain  Early  English  character,  and  the 
narrow  north  (and  only)  aisle  is  unlighted. 
Hunston  is  described  in  the  Gentleman  s  Magazine, 
1792,  when  the  old  Common  Field  system  was  still 
in  existence.  The  church  "is  now  in  so  decayed 
a  state  that  its  utter  ruin  seems  unavoidable 


86  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

before  long.  .  .  .  The  land  is  principally  enclosed ; 
a  small  part  of  the  arable,  but  the  greater  part 
of  the  meadow  and  pasture,  is  in  common.  The 
village  contains  about  a  dozen  houses,  most  of 
which  are  round  the  verge  of  a  small  common, 
on  which,  and  in  the  common  meadow,  after  the 
festival  of  St.  James,  the  farms  have  leases  for 
turning  out  cattle  in  proportion  to  their  size.  A 
cow  is  valued  at  12s.  6d. ;  a  horse  double ;  or  two 
cows  may  be  turned  to  common  on  one  horse- 
lease."  A  common  still  exists  and  is  covered 
largely  with  gorse.  The  church  has  been  rebuilt ; 
it  is  dedicated  to  St.  Leodegar  or  St.  Leger,  chiefly 
known  for  his  associations  with  the  turf.  He 
was  a  seventh-century  Bishop  of  Autun,  and 
played  a  prominent  part  in  the  stormy  events 
of  Merovingian  days.  He  had  strong  convictions, 
for  which  he  fearlessly  died,  but  he  was  rather 
a  political  than  a  strictly  religious  martyr. 

To  the  east  of  these  villages  the  rather  feature- 
less and  very  low  shore  is  relieved  by  a  singular 
reef  of  rocks,  once  much  more  extensive  than  at 
present,  having  been  reduced  by  the  erosion  of  the 
waves,  and  by  quarrying  for  purposes  of  building. 
They  are  known  as  Bognor  Rocks,*  and  they  make 
the  sea-front  of  that  little  town  much  more  inter- 
esting than  it  would  otherwise  be;  there  is  not 
much  beauty  either  in  the  concrete  wall  or  in  the 
iron  pier.  Lying  on  the  beach,  however,  are 
usually  to  be  seen  tarred  lobster-traps  made  of 
osiers  locally  grown.  It  takes  a  man  a  whole  day 
to  make  two  of  them,  and  on  account  of  the 
frantic  and  sometimes  successful  efforts  of  the 
crustaceans  to  escape  the  traps  seldom  last  more 
than  a  year.  Baited  with  pieces  of  fish,  they  are 
sunk  in  the  sea  with  flints,  and  as  the  lobsters  are 
*  Lower  Eocene,  fulljrf  large  shells. 


BOGNOR  87 

pulled  up  they  are  disarmed  by  having  their  claws 
tied,  nature  having  provided  little  projections  to 
prevent  the  ligaments  from  slipping. 

Bognor  counts  as  its  virtual  founder  Sir  Richard 
Hotham,  who  in  1780  built  for  himself  in  beautiful 
grounds  the  large  brick  house  called  the  Dome, 
from  the  form  of  the  central  part  of  its  roof.  He 
was  anxious  to  "  boom  "  the  town,  and  desired  it  to 
be  known  as  Hothampton,  a  name  which  would 
not  have  been  advertising  when  the  fame  of  the 
founder  being  a  little  dimmed  by  lapse  of  time 
another  derivation  would  inevitably  have  suggested 
itself  and  kept  the  seekers  of  cool  breezes  away. 
A  great  charm  of  Bognor  is  the  foliage  that  shades 
so  much  of  the  town  and  makes  the  older  streets 
attractive.  The  Early  Victorian  atmosphere  still 
pervades  the  little  place ;  the  cemented  houses  that 
we  deem  ugly  now  would  form  an  exactly  suit- 
able setting  to  some  of  the  scenes  of  Dickens  and 
Thackeray.  Though  comparatively  so  modern  in 
date,  the  place  can  boast  of  a  ruined  church,  whose 
tower  still  shelters  a  clock,  though  it  cannot  be 
called  very  interesting.  Bognor  is  in  the  parish 
of  South  Bersted,  which  has  a  fine  Early  English 
church  little  altered ;  the  pillars,  alternately  round 
and  octagonal,  have  simple  foot  ornaments  and 
moulded  caps ;  there  is  no  chancel  arch,  and  the 
clearstory  is  unlighted.  A  fine  chest  with  carved 
circles  seems  nearly  as  old  as  the  church.  Two 
pillars  have  remains  of  old  paintings.  The  tower 
is  very  low  and  heavily  buttressed,  while  a  smaller 
arch  has  been  built  under  the  original  one,  the 
foundations  were  evidently  found  insecure ;  there 
is  a  shingled  spire. 

The  modern  church  spire  of  Bognor  is  a  con- 
spicuous landmark.  But  it  is  for  its  literary 


88  THE  SUSSEX   COAST 

associations,  that  the  town  is  really  best  known  to 
the  world.  Joining  Bognor  on  the  east  and  practi- 
cally part  of  it  is  Felpham,  an  ancient  village  that 
is  mentioned  in  Alfred's  will,  and  later  belonged  to 
the  Benedictine  Nunnery  at  Shaftesbury,  which  he 
founded  or  restored,  and  which  afterwards  received 
the  bones  of  Edward  the  Martyr.  Felpham  church 
seems  to  have  grown  from  a  Norman  building 
whose  side  walls,  as  was  frequently  the  case,  were 
later  pierced  for  arcades,  the  north  one  earlier  and 
more  massive  than  the  other,  though  both  are 
within  the  Early  English  period.  The  chancel  is 
early  Decorated,  and  the  tower  with  chequer  flint 
and  stone  rather  late  Perpendicular. 

The  real  interest  of  Felpham  is  much  later  and 
clusters  round  a  cemented  and  turreted  house  that 
stands  within  its  own  grounds,  and  a  brick-chim- 
neyed plastered  cottage  with  thatched  verandah 
and  roof  buried  among  creepers  and  shrubs  that 
stands  by  the  side  of  the  road.  They  were  once 
the  homes  of  Hay  ley  and  of  Blake. 

William  Hayley  (1745-1820)  had  inherited  a 
beautiful  place  at  Eartham,  six  miles  north  of 
Felpham  in  a  straight  line,  in  a  wooded  combe 
high  up  among  the  Downs,  from  his  father  (son 
of  Dean  Hayley),  who  had  purchased  the  place 
from  the  heirs  of  Sir  Robert  Fagg.  The  tiny 
village  with  its  Norman  church  is  just  outside 
the  wooded  grounds  of  the  house.  Here  the 
poet  used  to  entertain  friends  of  various  distinc- 
tion, among  them  Cowper,  Flaxman,  and  Gibbon. 
The  last,  who  rests  on  Sussex  soil  at  Fletching 
in  the  Sheffield  vault,  records  one  such  visit  in 
his  autobiography :  "  I  seemed  to  blush  while  they 
read  an  elegant  compliment  from  Mr.  Hayley, 
whose  poetical  talents  had  more  than  once  been 


BOGNOR  89 

employed  in  the  praise  of  his  friend.  Before 
Mr.  Hayley  inscribed  with  my  name  his  epistles 
on  history,  I  was  not  acquainted  with  that 
amiable  man  and  elegant  poet.  He  afterwards 
thanked  me  in  verse  for  my  second  and  third 
volumes  ;  and  in  the  summer  of  1781  the  Roman 
Eagle  (a  proud  title)  accepted  the  invitation  of 
the  English  Sparrow,  who  chirped  in  the  groves 
of  Eartham,  near  Chichester." 

Hayley   in   1780   had   addressed   to    Gibbon   an 
essay  on  history  in  sufficiently  indifferent  verse — 

' '  Yet  while  Polemics,  in  fierce  league  combin'd 
With  savage  discord  vex  thy  feeling  mind, 
And  rashly  stain  Religion's  just  defence 
By  gross  detraction  and  perverted  sense, 
Thy  wounded  ear  may  haply  not  refuse 
The  soothing  accents  of  an  humbler  Muse." 

Perhaps  Gibbon  was  flattered,  perhaps  he  was 
in  a  peculiarly  generous  frame  of  mind  when  on 
July  3,  1782,  he  wrote  of  Hayley :  "  He  rises  with 
his  subject,  and  since  Pope's  death  I  am  satisfied 
that  England  has  not  seen  so  happy  a  mixture  of 
strong  sense  and  flowing  numbers."  Hayley  had 
acquired  a  seaside  house  at  Felpham,  to  which  he 
made  frequent  trips,  and  eventually  when  money 
difficulties  made  necessary  the  sale  of  the  estate 
he  made  it  his  home.  Eartham  found  a  purchaser 
in  William  Huskisson,  who  was  killed  by  being  run 
over  at  the  opening  of  the  Manchester  and  Liver- 
pool Railway  in  September,  1830 ;  he  is  commemo- 
rated by  a  very  bad  window  and  a  Roman  statue 
of  white  marble  at  the  west  end  of  the  outer  north 
aisle  in  Chichester  Cathedral.  The  toga  is  cer- 
tainly more  adapted  to  statuary  than  our  own 
frock  coats  and  starched  collars,  which  however 


90  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

beautiful  in  themselves  are  'little  suited  to  repro- 
duction in  marble  (p.  18). 

Hayley,  famous  for  his  poetry,  for  his  scholar- 
ship, for  his  hospitality  and  for  tumbling  off  every 
horse  he  attempted  to  ride,  was  at  one  time 
extraordinarily  popular  as  a  writer,  and  was  offered 
the  Laureateship,  which  however  he  refused,  in 
this  as  in  many  other  matters  showing  better 
judgment  than  his  enthusiastic  admirers.  We  can 
hardly  refuse  to  accept  Byron's  summary  of  his 
rhyming  powers — 

1 '  His  style  in  youth  or  age  is  just  the  same, 
For  ever  feeble  and  for  ever  tame." 

But  there  is  real  poetry  in  much  that  Hayley 
wrote,  and  on  the  whole  he  seems  to  have  been  at 
his  best  in  writing  those  epitaphs  that  his  age 
demanded.  It  may  not  be  high  art,  but  the  lines 
from  his  pen  that  are  inscribed  on  the  monument 
of  Collins  in  the  Cathedral  (p.  43),  are  at  any  rate 
excellent  of  their  kind — 

"  Ye  who  the  merits  of  the  dead  revere, 
Who  hold  misfortune  sacred — genius  dear — 
Regard  this  tomb,  where  Collins'  hapless  name 
Solicits  kindness  with  a  double  claim. 
Though  Nature  gave  him,  and  though  Science  taught, 
The  fire  of  Fancy  and  the  reach  of  Thought, 
Severely  doomed  in  penury's  extreme 
He  passed  in  maddening  pain  Life's  feverish  dream  ; 
While  rays  of  genius  only  served  to  show 
The  thickening  horror  and  exalt  his  woe. 
Ye  walls,  that  echoed  to  his  frantic  moan, 
Guard  the  due  records  of  this  graceful  stone  I 
Strangers  to  him,  enamoured  of  his  lays, 
This  fond  memorial  to  his  talents  raise ; 
For  this  the  ashes  of  the  Bard  require 
Who  touched  the  tenderest  notes  of  Pity's  lyre ; 


BOGNOR  91 

Who  joined  pure  faith  to  strong  poetic  powers  ; 
Who,  in  reviving  Reason's  lucid  hours, 
Sought  on  one  Book  his  troubled  mind  to  rest, 
And  rightly  deemed  the  Book  of  God  the  best." 

In  the  old  churchyard  at  Selsey,  over  the  resting- 
place  of  two  boys  drowned  in  trying  to  save  the 
crew  of  a  wrecked  vessel,  there  used  to  be  a  stone 
with  another  epitaph  by  Hayley,  but  it  seems  to 
have  disappeared  or  to  have  become  illegible — 

"  Around  this  grave  with  veneration  tread, 
For  youth  and  valour  graced  these  honour'd  dead  ; — 
Grac'd,  and  yet  fail'd  their  useful  lives  to  save 
From  the  dark  rage  of  winter's  ruthless  wave  ; 
They  in  the  storms  of  peril,  undeprest, 
Rendered  brave  succour  to  a  ship  distrest : 
Returning  with  a  generous  joy,  the  shore 
They  seem'd  to  reach,  but  living  reach'd  no  more. 
Their  rescued  bodies  share  this  common  tomb, 
Justly  we  mourn  who  lose  them  in  their  bloom  ; — 
But  let  this  truth  our  rising  sorrow  calm, 
Their  God  has  called  them  to  an  early  palm." 

The  lines  that  Hayley  wrote  on  the  death  of  his 
mother  have  a  note  of  true  affection  and  genuine 
feeling,  but  it  was  in  truth  almost  impossible  for 
the  poet  really  to  soar  far  above  the  commonplace, 
and  there  is  a  strong  infusion  of  egotism. 

"  O  thou  fond  spirit,  who  with  pride  hast  smiled, 
And  frowned  with  fear  on  thy  poetic  child, 
Pleased,  yet  alarmed,  when  in  his  boyish  time 
He  sighed  in  numbers  or  he  laughed  in  rhyme  ; 
While  thy  kind  cautions  warned  him  to  beware 
Of  Penury,  the  bard's  perpetual  snare  ; 
Marking  the  early  temper  of  his  soul, 
Careless  of  wealth,  nor  fit  for  base  control ! 
Thou  tender  saint,  to  whom  he  owes  much  more 
Than  ever  child  to  parent  owed  before." 


92  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

Hayley's  prose  works,  though  nearly  forgotten, 
are  better  on  the  whole  than  his  verse,  and  a  brief 
account  of  two  of  them  may  be  of  interest.  He 
lived  to  see  his  fame  as  a  writer  reduced  to  the 
very  modest  level  at  which  it  has  remained  ever 
since,  in  this  repect  having  a  very  different  career 
from  that  of  Blake,  who  died  before  he  had  been 
seriously  "discovered."  Hayley,  however,  wins 
our  respect  by  his  complete  absence  of  petty  feel- 
ings, by  his  generous  appreciation  of  the  work  of 
others,  and  by  not  displaying  jealousy  of  rivals 
when  his  star  was  rapidly  waning.  His  Essay  on 
Old  Maids  is  a  rather  whimsical  composition  in  no 
less  than  three  volumes,  totalling  about  750  pages, 
and  there  are  no  digressions.  In  addition  to  an 
exhaustive  disquisition  into  the  matter  from  his 
own  experience,  the  whole  history  of  virginity  is 
elucidated  by  extensive:quotations  from  the  Bible, 
the  Greek  and  Latin  classics,  the  Fathers  of  the 
Church,  and  mediaeval  and  modern  European 
literature.  It  is  worked  out  with  considerable 
learning  and  some  humour,  and  though  a  little 
indelicate  in  parts  (to  employ  a  favourite  word 
of  Hayley's  own)  it  is  less  so  than  many  of  its 
authorities.  After  reading  the  work  through  it 
must  be  admitted  that  we  do  not  feel  we  have  got 
anywhere.  It  is  not  very  easy  to  summarise  the 
essay,  but  perhaps  the  following  page  from  vol.  iii. 
(p.  134)  will  give  a  general  idea  of  its  style — 

"  Mr.  Malone,  in  his  very  ingenious  and  amusing 
attempt  to  ascertain  the  order  in  which  the  plays 
of  Shakespeare  were  written,  has  allotted  the 
comedy  of  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well  to  the  year 
1598.  I  was  at  first  inclined  to  suppose,  that  this 
elegant  and  accurate  commentator  was  mistaken 
in  this  article,  from  an  idea,  that  Shakespeare 


BOGNOR  93 

could  not  have  written  such  an  invective  against 
old  virginity  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  who  prided 
herself  on  being  the  queen  of  Old  Maids.  But, 
reflection  has  led  me  into  a  conjecture,  which, 
fanciful  as  it  may  seem  to  others,  to  me  appears  to 
confirm  the  date  assigned  by  Mr.  Malone  to  this 
comedy  ;  and  to  give  also  additional  spirit  to  the 
passage,  as  directly  pointed  against  the  queen  her- 
self, from  an  honest  indignation  of  the  poet  in 
behalf  of  his  great  friend  and  patron  the  liberal 
earl  of  Southampton.  Mr.  Malone,  in  speaking  of 
this  nobleman,  has  observed,  *  that  he  attended 
lord  Essex  on  the  expedition  to  Cadiz,  in  1597,  as 
a  volunteer,  and  afterwards  to  Ireland  as  general 
of  the  horse,  from  which  employment  he  was  dis- 
missed by  the  peremptory  orders  of  Queen  Eliza 
beth,  who  was  offended  with  him  for  having 
presumed  to  marry  Miss  Elizabeth  Vernon  [in 
1596]  without  her  majesty's  consent.' 

"  Now  it  appears  to  me  highly  probable,  that 
when  his  patron  was  thus  injuriously  treated  by 
the  antiquated  maiden  queen,  merely  for  marrying 
a  lovely  young  woman,  it  appears,  I  say,  highly 
probable,  that  Shakespeare  might  at  this  juncture 
point  all  his  wit,  with  a  generous  acrimony, 
against  that  old  virginity,  which,  equivocal  as  it 
was,  his  tyrannical  sovereign  considered  as  the 
highest  of  her  titles." 

Hayley's  Life  of  Cowper,  like  many  other 
eighteenth-century  productions,  is  portentously 
long,  over  sixteen  hundred  pages,  in  four  volumes. 
It  gives  some  insight  into  the  life  of  England  at 
that  time — this  in  so  ample  a  space  it  could  hardly 
avoid — life  particularly  as  lived  in  the  quiet  little 
county  town  of  Huntingdon  by  the  family  of  Mr. 
Unwin  (with  whom  Cowper  boarded),  the  day 


94  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

being  spent  in  reading  the  Scriptures  or  the 
sermons  of  some  faithful  preacher  of  those  holy 
mysteries,  working  in  the  garden,  singing  hymns, 
attending  divine  service,  which  was  performed 
twice  every  day,  and  finding  pleasure  in  walking 
over  the  flat  meadows  by  the  Ouse,  which  the  late 
Mrs.  Bishop  declared  formed  the  most  satisfying 
scenery  she  knew,  after  all  her  long  travels.  Per- 
haps the  best  general  description  of  the  book 
would  be  that  it  faintly  recalls  Boswell's  Life  of 
Johnson,  but  with  all  the  really  good  things  left 
out.  There  is  the  same  sincere  attachment  to  the 
Church,  though  in  the  age  of  Voltaire. 

The  character  and  life  of  Cowper  are  summed 
up  in  the  following  passage,  which  is  among  the 
few  that  are  sufficiently  concise  to  be  quoted  with- 
out abstracting  about  a  dozen  pages :  "  Thwarted 
in  love,  the  native  fire  of  his  temperament  turned 
impetuously  into  the  kindred  channel  of  devotion. 
The  smothered  flames  of  desire,  uniting  with  the 
vapours  of  constitutional  melancholy,  and  the 
fervency  of  religious  zeal,  produced  altogether 
that  irregularity  of  corporeal  sensation,  and  of 
mental  health,  which  gave  such  extraordinary 
vicissitudes  of  splendour,  and  of  darkness,  to  his 
mortal  career,  and  made  Cowper  at  times  an  idol 
of  the  purest  admiration,  and  at  times  an  object  of 
the  sincerest  pity." 

A  very  large  proportion  of  the  work  consists  of 
Cowper's  own  letters,  one  of  them,  addressing  a 
young  kinsman  on  the  point  of  taking  orders, 
"  sufficiently  proves  his  attachment  to  the  Church 
of  England ;  and  he  speaks  so  decidedly  on  the 
subject,  that  certainly  none  of  the  sectaries  have 
a  right  to  reckon  him  in  their  number." 

"By  his  zealous  attention  to  the  Scripture,  he 


BOGNOR  96 

incessantly  treasured  in  his  own  capacious  mind 
those  inexhaustible  stores  of  sentiment  and 
expression,  which  enabled  him  gradually  to  ascend 
the  purest  heights  of  poetical  renown,  which 
rendered  him  at  last,  what  he  ardently  wished  to 
prove — the  poet  of  Christianity — the  monitor  of 
the  world  ! " 

Hayley  writes  throughout  as  a  devout  Christian, 
and  in  the  Essay  on  Old  Maids  refers  to  "those 
sarcastic  remarks  on  Christianity  which  are  the 
only  blemish  in  Gibbon's  exquisite  composition." 

Becoming  acquainted  with  William  Blake  (1757- 
1827)  through  Flaxman,  Hayley  induced  that 
mystic,  in  whose  opinion  all  things  existed  in  the 
human  imagination  alone,  to  settle  at  Felpham  in 
order  more  conveniently  to  do  some  engraved 
illustrations  for  certain  of  Hayley 's  works. 
Ridiculous  as  it  would  have  seemed  at  the  time, 
Blake's  star  was  destined  far  to  outshine  that  of 
his  patron.  In  one  of  the  less  beautiful  of  his 
poems  Blake  has  told  us  how — 

"And  Felpham  Billy  rode  out  every  morn, 
Horseback  with  Death,  over  the  fields  of  corn." 

Blake's  nickname  Death  seems  to  have  origin- 
ated from  his  having  illustrated  Blair's  Grave.  At 
first  he  was  fascinated  with  Felpham  and  wrote 
the  lines  quoted  at  the  head  of  the  chapter.  It 
was  here,  too,  that  walking  alone  one  day  in  the 
garden  of  the  cot  he  saw  the  Fairy's  Funeral 
which  so  appealed  to  his  imagination :  "  There  was 
great  stillness  among  the  branches  and  flowers, 
and  more  than  common  sweetness  in  the  air ;  I 
heard  a  low  and  pleasant  sound,  and  I  knew  not 
whence  it  came.  At  last  I  saw  the  broad  leaf  of  a 


96  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

flower  move,  and  underneath  I  saw  a  procession  of 
creatures,  of  the  size  and  colour  of  green  and  grey 
grasshoppers,  bearing  a  body  laid  out  on  a  rose- 
leaf,  which  they  buried  with  songs,  and  then 
disappeared." 

On  another  occasion,  walking  in  the  same  place, 
he  saw  with  far  less  pleasure  a  soldier  working 
there ;  the  gardener  had  requested  his  services  but 
without  Blake's  knowledge,  and  he  turned  him  out 
with  little  ceremony.  It  is  never  a  good  plan  to 
make  enemies,  particularly  not  for  people  whose 
political  opinions  are  not  those  of  the  majority, 
and  the  incident  resulted  in  Blake's  being  tried  for 
sedition  (p.  38).  Though  acquitted  he  was  dis- 
gusted with  Sussex  and  returned  to  London. 

Blake's  poetry  Wordsworth  thought  "un- 
doubtedly the  production  of  insane  genius,  but 
there  is  something  in  the  madness  of  this  man 
that  interests  me  more  than  the  sanity  of  Lord 
Byron  and  Walter  Scott."  Others,  particularly 
Swinburne,  have  spoken  even  more  eulogistically 
of  his  work.  One  understands  why  Hayley  has 
no  enthusiastic  admirers  to-day.  He  is  common- 
place, he  did  practically  nothing  that  others  have 
not  done  better.  One  does  not  exactly  understand 
the  extraordinary  cult  of  Blake  or  just  what  is  the 
foundation  of  his  vast  reputation,  but  it  is  a  cult 
that  one  respects  and  admires.  That  haze  of 
mysticism  that  wraps  and  rather  obscures  his 
writings  like  a  drifting  cirrus  cloud  which  pre- 
vents one  seeing  precisely  what  meaning  the  poet 
intended  to  convey  has  an  intense  fascination  for 
many.  There  is  more  than  appears  on  the  surface 
both  of  poems  and  engravings.  As  John  Sampson 
puts  it,  the  close  study  of  his  works  "  should  not 
be  undertaken  with  slight  equipment,  or  in  a  spirit 


BOGNOR  97 

of  condescension  towards  '  our  good  Blake,'  the 
somewhat  illiterate,  but  amiable  enthusiast,  who, 
though  '  slightly  touched,'  was  capable  now  and 
then  of  happy  flights  of  fancy  which  are  to  be 
sought  for  as  oases  in  the  Sahara  of  his  writings. 
To  some  of  those  who  have  essayed  to  follow  with 
more  or  less  success  Blake's  almost  untrodden 
path,  the  converse  is  rather  the  case — 

'And  every  sand  becomes  a  Gem 
Reflected  in  the  beams  Divine, 
Blown  back  they  blind  the  mocking  eye 
But  still  in  Israel's  paths  they  shine.'" 

The  context  of  this  in  Blake  (Rossetti  Manuscripts) 
is — 

"Mock  on,  Mock  on,  Voltaire,  Rousseau; 
Mock  on,  Mock  on ;  'tis  all  in  vain  I 
You  throw  the  sand  against  the  wind 
And  the  wind  blows  it  back  again." 

There  is  about  Blake's  poetry  a  kind  of  artless 
simplicity  which  is  attractive,  but  his  power  of 
expression  is  limited,  his  technical  skill  in  versifi- 
cation is  very  small.  There  is  a  delightful  rhythm 
about  Holy  Thursday,  there  is  a  certain  vivid 
reality  too ;  the  end  seems  strangely  incon- 
sequent— 

' '  'Twas  on  a  Holy  Thursday,  their  innocent  faces  clean, 
Came    children    walking  two    and  two,  in  red  and  blue 

and  green : 
Grey-headed  beadles  walked  before,  with  wands  as  white 

as  snow, 
Till   into    the    high   dome   of    Paul's    they    like    Thames 

waters  flow. 

7 


98  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

O  what  a  multitude  they  seemed,  these  flowers  of  Lon- 

don town, 
Seated  in  companies  they  were,   with  radiance  all  their 

own  : 
The   hum   of   multitudes   was   there,    but  multitudes   of 

lambs, 
Thousands  of  little  boys  and  girls  raising  their  innocent 

hands. 

Now  like  a  mighty  wind  they  raise  to  heaven  the  voice 

of  song, 
Or  like  harmonious  thunderings  the  seats  of  heaven 

among  : 
Beneath  them  sit  the  aged  men,  wise  guardians  of  the 


Then    cherish   pity,    lest  you   drive   an    angel   from   the 
door." 

The  well-known  pieces  on  The  Tyger  and  The 
Lamb  are  particularly  characteristic  of  Blake's 
general  style,  and  extracts  may  be  quoted  — 

"Tyger  I  Tyger!  burning  bright 
In  the  forests  of  the  night, 
What  immortal  hand  or  eye 
Could  frame  thy  fearful  symmetry." 

"Little  Lamb,  who  made  thee? 
Dost  thou  know  who  made  thee  ? 
Gave  thee  life,  and  bid  thee  feed, 
By  the  stream  and  o'er  the  mead  ; 
Gave  thee  clothing,  woolly,  bright  ; 
Gave  thee  such  a  tender  voice, 
Making  all  the  vales  rejoice? 

Little  Lamb,  who  made  thee? 

Dost  thou  know  who  made  thee  ?  " 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Blake's  peculiar 
method  of  publication  —  the  whole  book,  printing, 
engraving,  binding,  being  produced  by  himself  and 


BOGNOR  99 

his  wife  (whom  Swinburne  thought  about  the  most 
perfect  on  record) — has  materially  helped  his  fame. 
There  are  few  writers  whose  reputation  would 
not  be  enhanced  by  the  complete  blotting  out  of 
some  of  their  work,  but  still  fewer  can  equal  for 
badness  the  worst  products  of  Blake.  For  his 
comprehensive  and  childish  abuse  of  Sussexians 
he  cannot  even  have  the  excuse  that  a  political 
lampoonist  may  claim — 

"The  Sussex  Men  are  Noted  Fools, 
And  weak  is  their  brain-pan — 

I  wonder  if  H [Haines]  the  painter 

Is  not  a  Sussex  Man." 

Nor  can  much  be  said  for  his  attack  on  Hayley — 

"When  H — r—y  finds  out  what  you  cannot  do, 
That  is  the  very  thing  he'll  set  you  to ; 
If  you  break  not  your  Neck,  'tis  not  his  fault ; 
But  pecks  of  poison  are  not  pecks  of  salt." 

However,  if  Blake  had  written  nothing  else  the 
wanderer  in  the  byways  of  Sussex,  especially  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Felpham,  may  well  feel 
the  highest  gratitude  for  his  ideal — 

"To  see  a  World  in  a  Grain  of  Sand, 
And  a  Heaven  in  a  Wild  Flower, 
Hold  Infinity  in  the  palm  of  your  hand, 
And  Eternity  in  an  hour." 

It  is  the  very  spirit  that  is  essential  really  to 
appreciate  a  country  ramble  of  any  sort,  and  it 
is  beautifully  expressed. 

The  junction  for  Bognor  on  the  main  South 
Coast  line  is  at  Barnham,  and  though  the  build- 
ings round  the  station  are  of  no  great  beauty 


100  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

there  is  an  interesting  church  in  the  old  village. 
The  nave  is  Norman,  and  has  two  little  original 
windows  high  up  ;  a  north  aisle  has  been  built  and 
destroyed ;  the  chancel  is  Early  English,  with  large 
lancets.  Between  nave  and  chancel  is  an  arched 
timber  framework  with  pierced  spandrels  which 
seems  a  later  insertion,  and  is  an  unusual  feature. 
The  west  wall  is  late  Perpendicular,  and  it  appears 
to  have  shortened  the  church  ;  over  the  gable  is  a 
square  wooden  bell-turret  of  a  kind  not  uncommon 
in  Sussex. 

The  next  village  is  Yapton,  which  some  one  has 
guessed,  very  plausibly,  to  be  named  from  Eappa, 
one  of  Wilfrid's  companions.  The  church  has  a 
very  early  font :  it  is  cylindrical  in  shape  and 
shallow  incised  arches  enclose  crosses ;  it  may  be 
Saxon.  The  south-west  tower,  with  double  lancet 
windows,  and  the  arcades  are  late  twelfth-century 
work,  and  parts  of  the  walls  are  earlier.  The 
pillars  are  round  and  octagonal,  with  foot  orna- 
ments and  very  stiff  foliage,  which  on  the  south 
is  left  unfinished.  The  aisles  are  extremely 
narrow  and  low;  the  southern  one  has  a  little 
Norman  east  window  and  small  later  quatrefoil 
openings  at  the  side.  The  chancel  is  Early 
English,  later  than  the  arcades.  At  the  west 
end  is  a  timber  porch. 

Two  miles  east  of  Felpham,  on  the  flat  and 
rather  featureless  coast,  is  Middleton,  a  village 
that  has  mostly  gone  under  the  sea.  The  old 
church  was  standing  in  1805  (Gentleman  s  Maga- 
zine) ;  before  the  ordnance  survey  of  1823  it  was 
gone.  While  it  was  rapidly  going  it  was  visited 
by  Charlotte  Smith  (1749-1806),  successful  in  her 
day  as  a  novelist,  who  also  wrote  some  poetry. 
She  may  have  no  real  place  among  English  poets 


BOGNOR  101 

or  in  English  literature  at  all,  but  those  who  are 
touched  by  a  heroic  mother  writing  to  support 
her  children  after  the  bankruptcy  of  a  rather 
worthless  husband,  and  can  appreciate  the  genuine 
feeling  of  a  woman  who  was  at  times  so  weighed 
down  by  her  misfortunes  as  really  to  yearn  for 
the  peaceful  quiet  of  the  grave,  will  be  proud  to 
give  Charlotte  Smith  an  honoured  place  among 
the  worthies  of  Sussex.  Her  sonnet,  written  in 
the  churchyard  of  Middleton,  runs  thus — 

"Press'd  by  the  moon,  mute  arbitress  of  tides, 
Whilst  the  loud  equinox  its  power  combines ; 
The  sea  no  more  its  swelling  surf  confines, 
But  o'er  the  shrinking  land  sublimely  rides  ! 
The  wild  blast  rising  from  the  western  cave 
Drives  the  huge  billows  from  their  heaving  bed, 
Tears  from  their  grassy  tombs  the  village  dead, 
And  breaks  the  silent  sabbath  of  the  grave  ! 
With  shells  and  sea- weed  mingled  on  the  shore, 
Lo,  their  bones  whiten  in  the  frequent  wave  ; 
But  vain  to  them  the  winds  and  waters  rave, 
They  hear  the  warring  elements  no  more  : 
Whilst  I  am  doomed,  by  life's  long  storm  opprest, 
To  gaze  with  envy  on  their  gloomy  rest." 

The  old  church  was  evidently  not  architecturally 
striking  :  on  its  south  side  was  a  remarkably  large 
ivy  stem,  whose  spreading  foliage  nearly  covered 
the  south  and  west  sides  of  the  roof.  A  new 
building  has  been  provided  at  a  safe  distance 
inland,  and  a  few  old  gravestones  were  moved. 
Cudlow  and  Atherington  have  so  completely  gone 
under  the  waves  that  the  poor  remnants  of  their 
parishes  are  now  united  with  others,  but  it  is 
fortunate  that  the  fine  church  of  Climping  is 
well  inland.  There  are  earthworks  in  the  imme- 
diate vicinity  of  the  churchyard  ;  probably  they 


102  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

were  for  defence,  possibly  for  drainage.  The  low 
tower  dates  from  about  a  century  after  the  Con- 
quest :  lancets  are  pierced  through  the  central 
pilaster  buttresses  with  zigzag  all  round — the 
parapet  rests  on  simple  corbels;  in  the  west  wall 
is  an  ornate  door,  trefoiled  under  a  round  arch 
with  zigzag  and  dog-tooth ;  on  each  side  is  a 
mysterious  little  hole,  a  diamond  ornament  over 
one,  a  circle  over  the  other.  By  a  later  inserted 
arch  this  tower  opens  into  the  south  transept  of 
the  fine  cross-shaped  Early  English  church,  whose 
nave  has  a  south  aisle.  It  is  supposed  to  have 
been  built  by  John  of  Climping,  who  was  in  1254 
elected  by  the  Chapter  Bishop  of  Chichester  to 
succeed  St.  Richard,  when  King  and  Pope  for  once 
not  interfering  they  were  able  to  choose  a  local 
man.  If  it  was  his  work  the  architectural  details 
make  it  likely  that  he  built  it  early  in  life,  some 
years  before  he  was  bishop.  The  arcade  has  round 
pillars  with  well-moulded  caps  and  arches ;  there 
are  plain  foot-ornaments,  and  the  tool  marks  are 
very  distinct;  the  transept  arches  are  nearly 
round.  The  elaborately  moulded  chancel  arch  rests 
on  corbels  with  little  corner  shafts  to  the  jambs ; 
the  eastern  triplet  has  quatrefoils  in  the  spandrels, 
and  is  a  beautiful  composition ;  there  are  two 
aumbries  in  the  east  wall,  and  these,  as  well  as 
the  inner  faces  of  the  side  lancets,  have  segmental 
arches.  There  is  a  chest  contemporary  with  the 
church  having  trefoil  arcading  and  circles  with 
slightly  Saracenic-looking  ornament.  Its  original 
purpose  was  probably  to  collect  money  for  the 
Crusades ;  boxes  for  this  object  were  ordered  to 
be  placed  in  all  churches  by  Pope  Innocent  III. 
There  are  also  some  early  fifteenth-century  benches 
with  buttresses  and  trefoiled  panels,  and  in  the 


BOGNOR  103 

north  transept  are  texts  carved  in  1633  by  the 
care  of  Pastor  John  White,  when  he  was  thirty- 
eight  years  old.  One  of  the  two  bells  is  dated 
1636.  A  scratched  circle  that  looks  like  a  sundial 
in  the  tower  is  probably  a  mason's  mark;  there 
is  a  painted  cross  on  an  inside  wall.  The  ridge 
of  the  nave  is  higher  than  the  parapet  of  the 
tower,  and  the  roof  slopes  down  without  a  break 
to  the  top  of  the  aisle  wall,  only  a  few  feet  from 
the  ground. 


V.  tArundd  &  Littlehampton 


OD  on  their  souls  have  now  pity, 
And  on  Arundel  his  good  steed, 
Giff  men  for  horse  shoulden  sing  or  read! 
Thus  endeth  Sir  Bevis  of  Hamptoun, 
That  was  so  noble  a  baron. 


So  ends  the  mediaeval  romance  about  the  knight 
after  whom  a  tower  of  Arundel  Castle  is  called, 
and  after  whose  horse  it  is  fabled  that  the  town 
itself  was  named.  On  the  latter  point  wrote 
Selden :  "It  were  so  as  tolerable  as  Bucephalon 
from  Alexander's  horse,  Tymenna  in  Lycia  from 
a  goat  of  that  name,  and  such  like,  if  time  would 
endure  it :  but  Bevis  was  about  the  conquest,  and 
this  town  is  by  name  of  Erundele  known  in  time 
of  King  Alfred  who  gave  it  with  others  to  his 
nephew  Athelm."  Some  derive  Arundel  from 
hirondelle,  a  swallow,  which  appears  as  a  rebus, 
like  the  well-known  ox  wading  through  a  ford, 
in  the  town  arms.  Michael  Drayton  in  his  Poly- 
olbion  (1613-1622)  asserts  that  the  river  "  did  name 
the  beauteous  "  town,  which,  standing  against  the 

104 


ARUNDEL  AND  LITTLEHAMPTON      105 

trees  of  the  park  on  the  slope  of  the  Downs,  so 
majestically  dominates  the  maritime  plain. 

In  the  same  poem  the  river  Test  sings  the 
great  achievements  of  Bevis,  who,  sold  by  his 
sinful  mother  to  an  Armenian  at  Southampton, 
started  on  Eastern  travels,  and — 

' '  Then  sang  she,  in  the  fields  how  as  he  went  to  sport, 
And   those   damn'd    Panims    heard,    who    in    despightful 

sort 

Derided  Christ  the  Lord  ;  for  his  Redeemer's  sake 
He   on   those   heathen   hounds   did   there   such   slaughter 

make, 
That    whilst    in   their    black    mouths    their   blasphemies 

they  drew, 

They  headlong  went  to  hell.     As  also  how  he  slew 
That  cruel  boar,  whose  tusks  turn'd  up  whole  fields  of 

grain. 

*  *  *  *  * 

As  to  his  farther  praise,  how  for  that  dangerous  fight 
The  o:reat  Armenian  King  made  noble  Bevis  Knight : 
And  having  raised  power,  Damascus  to  invade, 
The  General  of  his  force  this  English  hero  made. 
Then  how  fair  Josian  gave  him  Arundel  his  steed, 
And  Morglay  his  good  sword,  in  many  a  valiant  deed 
Which  manfully  he  try'd. 

*  *  *  •*  * 

And  how  at  his  return  the  King  (for  service  done 

The  honour  to  his  reign  and  to  Armenia  won) 

In  marriage  to  this  Earl  the  Princess  Josian  gave." 

From  other  accounts  we  learn  of  other  marvellous 
adventures  that  befell  this  gallant  and  illustrious 
knight.  His  dogs  not  seldom  got  much  bespattered 
with  our  Sussex  mud,  and  at  Bosham  he  was  wont 
to  break  his  journeys  for  the  purpose  of  washing 
them  ;  he  further  honoured  that  port  by  leaving 
his  staff  in  the  church,  and  a  Roman  bust  found 


106  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

there  (now  at  the  Palace,  Chichester)  was  supposed 
by  some  to  represent  him.* 

The  site  of  Arundel  was  evidently  chosen  from 
the  navigable  river  here  entering,  or  rather  leaving, 
its  gap  through  the  Downs.  Holinshed  tells  us 
"The  Arun  is  a  goodlie  water,  and  thereto  in- 
creased with  no  small  number  of  excellent  and 
pleasant  brookes.  It  springeth  up  of  two  heads, 
whereof  one  descendeth  from  the  north  not  far 
from  Gretham,  and  going  by  Lis,  meeteth  with  the 
next  streame  (as  I  gesse)  about  Doursford  House." 
A  street  in  Arundel  called  Tarrant  seems  possibly 
to  commemorate  an  earlier  name  of  the  stream, 
but  the  nomenclature  of  our  Sussex  rivers  is  a 
subject  of  the  extremest  complexity.  In  a  wide 
gap  among  extensive  grassy  meadows  flows  the 
Arun  through  the  South  Downs  ;  above  it  there 
is  a  spur  of  the  hills  that  joins  the  wooded  park 
and  looks  across  the  fertile  maritime  plain  with 
the  river  winding  over  it  to  the  Channel.  Here 
are  traces  of  defensive  earthworks  that  go  back 
to  the  immemorial  past,  and  protecting  the  same 
site  is  a  large  mound  that  looks  like  a  Norman 
motte,  and  is  surrounded  by  a  deep  ditch  where 
no  water  ever  was.  This  was  probably,  at  least 
in  part,  the  work  of  Roger  of  Montgomery,  to 
whom  the  Conqueror  granted  the  Rapes  both  of 
Arundel  and  Chichester.  The  plain  arches  of  the 
gate- tower — just  south  of  the  keep — the  outer  one 
with  a  portcullis  groove,  are  likewise  in  all  proba- 
bility his  work.  His  castle  was  of  the  usual  motte 
and  bailey  type,  and  it  seems  that  this  entrance  to 
the  outer  bailey  was  the  only  part  of  the  defences 

*  A  long  barrow  in  Arundel  Park  called  Bevis'  Grave 
was  opened  in  1833,  but  nothing  of  special  interest  was 
discovered. 


AEUNDEL  AND  LITTLEHAMPTON      107 

constructed  of  masonry.  After  taking  a  leading 
part  in  the  Conquest  and  leaving  his  mark  on 
England  and  Normandy  by  founding  castles,  mostly 
earthwork,  and  instituting  religious  houses,  Roger 
took  the  cowl  a  short  time  before  his  death  in 
Shrewsbury  Abbey,  his  own  foundation,  in  whose 
church  he  lies  at  rest  under  a  tomb  in  the  south 
aisle  of  the  nave.  His  Norman  stronghold  may 
still  be  seen  at  St.  Germain  de  Montgomery,  south 
of  Lisieux. 

In  dividing  Sussex  into  the  six  Rapes  (or  possibly 
making  use  of  older  divisions),  each  with  a  castle 
and  a  river,  and  assigning  them  in  four  cases  to 
nobles  who  already  had  Norman  territories  oppo- 
site them  on  the  other  side  of  the  Channel, 
William  the  Conqueror  evidently  planned  firmly 
to  weld  his  new  kingdom  with  his  old  Duchy. 
Thus  to  Roger  were  granted  the  Rapes  of  Chiches- 
ter  and  Arundel,  roughly  opposite  his  Norman 
lands — Chichester's  river  not  piercing  the  Downs 
it  did  not  form  the  same  important  gate  into 
the  heart  of  the  county  as  the  other  Rapes.  The 
Rape  of  Bramber,  the  valley  of  the  Adur,  was 
granted  to  William  of  Braose,  whose  Norman  lord- 
ship was  south-west  of  Falaise :  the  Rape  of  Lewes 
on  the  Ouse  was  assigned  to  William  of  Warenne, 
whose  continental  earthworks  remain  at  Bellen- 
combe  on  the  Varenne  (or,  as  it  is  now  called,  the 
Arques) ;  while  the  Rape  of  Hastings  was  given 
to  the  Count  of  Eu,  a  port  on  the  north-west 
frontier  of  Normandy. 

Two  of  the  same  family  followed  Roger  in  the 
possession  of  Arundel,  but  the  latter,  his  son 
Robert  of  Belesme,  forfeited  his  land  by  rebelling 
against  Henry  L,  who  conferred  Arundel  and 
Chichester  on  his  queen,  Adeliza.  After  the  king's 


108  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

death  they  passed  to  her  second  husband,  William 
of  Albini  (p.  25),  and  by  him  the  Norman  shell 
keep  tower  was  erected  on  Roger's  motte.  That 
mound,  being  only  about  sixty  years  old,  afforded 
none  too  secure  foundation,  and  it  was  in  all 
probability  this  fact  which  caused  the  circular 
form  to  be  chosen.  It  is  an  immensely  solid  work 
of  flint  and  Caen  stone,  and  originally  comprised 
buildings  surrounding  a  well-court,  under  which 
is  still  a  small  vaulted  chamber.  It  is  strengthened 
by  pilaster  buttresses  and  entered  by  a  well- 
moulded  doorway;  once  it  was  warmed  in  part 
by  a  hooded  fireplace  (or  rather  by  what  was 
in  it),  with  tiles  laid  in  herring-bone  at  the  back ; 
stair  and  parapet  are  additions.  Against  it  on 
the  south  are  two  fourteenth-century  towers  that 
form  the  present  entrance.  Superannuated  as  a 
fort,  it  once  served  as  an  owlery,  whose  residents 
the  owls  amused  their  ducal  owner  by  bearing 
the  names  of  celebrities  of  their  day.  At  present 
it  is  a  hollow  shell. 

Four  Albinis  followed  William,  the  first  Earl 
of  Arundel ;  then  by  marriage  the  estates  passed 
to  John  Fitzalan  (d.  1267),  whose  ancestor  William 
(d.  1160)  was  an  elder  brother  of  Walter,  the 
founder  of  Paisley  Abbey  and  ancestor  of  that 
royal  house  who  preferred  to  Fitzalan  the  surname 
derived  from  the  office  that  was  conferred  on 
Walter  by  David  I. — Stewart  (steward)  of  Scotland. 
Thirteen  Fitzalans  in  succession  owned  and  earled 
Arundel.  From  a  sentence  given  for  one  of  them 
in  Parliament  it  appears  that  "the  name,  style, 
and  rank  of  earl  is  annexed  to  the  castle,  honour 
and  demesne  of  Arundel,"  as  may  be  seen  in  the 
Parliament  Rolls,  27  Henry  VI.  (Camden).  By 
a  lucky  marriage  the  Howards,  who  in  the  same 


ARUNDEL  AND  LITTLEHAMPTON      109 

way  had  already  stepped  into  the  heritage  of 
the  House  of  Braose  at  Bramber,  then  secured 
the  vacant  estates  and  have  held  them  ever  since. 
The  first  of  them  to  own  Arundel  was  Philip,  Duke 
of  Norfolk  (son  of  the  Duke  executed  in  1572  for 
wishing  to  marry  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  and  to 
place  her  on  the  throne),  who,  as  his  contemporary 
Camden  delicately  puts  it,  "not  knowing  how  to 
put  up  with  reflections  and  difficulties  fell  into 
a  snare  by  the  contrivance  of  those  who  envied 
him  and  ended  his  days  after  having  been  brought 
into  the  utmost  danger."  In  plain  English  he  was 
committed  to  the  Tower  for  treason  on  a  charge 
of  praying  for  the  success  of  the  Spanish  Armada. 
The  keep  tower  forms  part  of  the  west  side  of 
the  vast  castle,  though  it  is  moated  against  the 
rest  of  it  as  well  as  against  the  outside  coun- 
try. There  are  two  huge  courts  running  north 
and  south,  approximately  900  feet  by  300  feet, 
and,  except  where  the  hillsides  fall  away 
too  steeply  to  require  them,  the  whole  is  pro- 
tected by  dry  moats.  On  the  south  the  castle- 
hill  rises  abruptly  from  the  river,  and  here  the 
lower  walling  is  largely  mediaeval  with  a  conspi- 
cuous double  window  of  late  Norman  character 
with  shafts.  The  great  structure  is  otherwise 
chiefly  modern,  immense  damage  having  been  done 
during  the  siege  by  Waller,  1643  (p.  42).  The 
northern  court  is  enclosed  only  by  a  battlemented 
curtain  wall  and  small  towers,  nearly  all  rebuilt 
by  the  present  Duke  in  flintwork.  The  south  court 
is  enclosed  by  great  buildings,  the  chief  features 
of  which  are  the  library  on  the  east,  huge  stair- 
case and  dwelling-rooms  on  the  south,  hall  and 
chapel  on  the  west.  The  library  is  a  most 
impressive  and  attractive  chamber,  over  100  feet 


110  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

in  length,  with  clustered  pillars  to  support  the 
galleries  and  rib-vaulted  roof,  all  in  mahogany, 
dating  from  a  rebuilding  in  the  late  eighteenth 
and  early  nineteenth  centuries.  The  rest  is  mostly 
the  work  of  the  present  Duke,  who  has  taken  down 
the  greater  part  of  the  rebuilding  *  and  raised  it 
again  on  a  colossal  scale  and  in  most  successful 
imitation  of  the  Gothic  work  of  the  latter  part 
of  the  period  that  we  must  now  name  the  elder 
Georgian  epoch.  All  is  built  of  a  beautiful  white 
stone. 

Roger  of  Montgomery  had  founded  at  Arundel 
an  alien  priory  dependent  on  the  Benedictine 
Abbey  of  Se*ez  in  Normandy ;  there  had  been 
secular  Canons  before  the  Conquest.  The  present 
fine  cruciform  church,  the  only  large  one  in  the 
county  belonging  to  the  Perpendicular  period,  was 
built  by  the  excellent  Richard  Fitzalan,  who  after 
a  distinguished  naval  career  was  executed  in  1397 
for  taking  part  against  Richard  II. ;  for  several 
generations  he  was  popularly  regarded  as  a  saint. 
His  possibly  is  the  beautiful  altar-tomb  with 
recumbent  effigies  of  Earl  and  Countess  now  in 
the  nave  of  Chichester  Cathedral,  said  to  have 
been  moved  from  Lewes  Priory,  but  St.  John  Hope 
thinks  it  is  more  likely  to  be  that  of  his  father, 
who  died  1376.  The  quire  of  the  church  he 
designed  as  the  chapel  for  his  College,  whose 
cloister  court  was  on  its  south  side  (there  are 
still  remains  built  into  a  modern  Roman  Catholic 
institution) ;  the  nave  and  transepts  formed  the 
parochial  part.  Such  a  division  was  by  no  means 
uncommon ;  it  may  be  seen  to-day  in  the  Abbaye 
aux  Dames  at  Caen.  Relations  between  the  two 

*  Some  of  the  old  mahogany  is  now  used  for  doors  and 
other  fittings  at  8,  Hanover  Crescent,  Brighton. 


ARUNDEL  AND  LITTLEHAMPTON      111 

sets  of  clergy  were  not  seldom  strained,  and  at 
Sherborne  in  the  famous  riots  of  1436  a  parish  priest 
setting  fire  to  the  monastic  part  of  the  church, 
to  punish  the  monks  for  their  bumptiousness,  in- 
cidentally consumed  the  parochial  part  as  well. 
As  a  rule  at  the  Dissolution  the  whole  church 
became  parochial  or  the  part  that  was  not  used 
by  the  parish  was  taken  down  or  allowed  to  go 
to  ruin;  at  Boxgrove  hard  by,  for  instance,  the 
parishioners  moved  into  the  monastic  quire  and 
the  old  parochial  nave  is  in  ruin ;  at  Crowland 
(Lincolnshire)  the  north  aisle  of  the  nave  has 
always  formed  the  parish  church,  and  it  is  the 
only  part  of  the  building  not  in  ruins  to-day. 
But  at  Arundel  the  quire  was  granted  to  the 
Earl  by  Henry  VIII.,  and  it  has  since  remained 
a  private  burial-place.  In  1635  Dr.  Brent,  visiting 
Arundel  Church  as  Vicar-General  for  the  Primate, 
complained  "the  Choir  and  Lady  Chapel  are 
always  kept  locked  up,  so  the  altar  has  to  be  in 
an  aisle."  A  memorable  lawsuit  in  1879 — Duke 
of  Norfolk  v.  Arbuthnot  (the  Vicar) — decided  the 
quire  and  its  north  aisle  to  be  the  private  property 
of  his  Grace. 

The  church  is  a  fine  specimen  of  early  Perpen- 
dicular work,  consisting  of  nave  and  aisles  of  five 
bays,  north,  west,  and  south  porches — the  first 
of  timber  and  the  last  with  a  remarkable  stone 
roof — central  tower  and  transepts,  quire,  and 
north  chapel.  The  east  tower  arch  has  an  interest- 
ing iron  screen  contemporary  with  the  church  ; 
it  is  blocked  by  a  stone  wall  separating  what  is 
usually  called  the  Fitzalan  Chancel.  The  nave 
is  impressive  from  its  spaciousness,  the  pillars 
are  clustered,  the  clearstory  windows  are  quatre- 
foils  in  circles,  those  of  the  aisles  of  three  lights 


112  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

each.  There  is  a  fine  old  stone  pulpit,  and  the 
roofs  are  plain  timber,  mostly  modern.  Some 
original  frescoes  remain. 

The  Fitzalan  Chancel  has  been  carefully  and 
beautifully  restored  by  the  Duke;  its  roofs  are 
wooden  vaults  resting  on  carved  stone  corbels  ; 
its  east  window  is  of  seven  lights,  the  side  ones, 
including  those  of  the  clearstory,  are  of  four 
each;  there  are  miserere  stalls  and  a  magnificent 
series  of  monuments,  recumbent  effigies  on  altar- 
tombs,  some  surmounted  by  canopies,  several  with 
carving  in  most  intricate  detail,  some  have  brasses. 
The  general  effect  of  the  chancel  is  exceedingly 
rich  and  striking.  Under  one  of  the  three  arches 
that  separate  chancel  from  aisle  is  an  alabaster 
monument  to  Earl  John  Fitzalan;  it  is  an  open 
altar-tomb;  above  he  is  represented  as  an  armed 
knight,  below  as  an  emaciated  corpse,  according 
to  a  disgusting  custom  not  unusual  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  Earl  John  died  in  1435  and  was  buried 
originally  in  the  Grey  Friars  Church  at  Beauvais, 
so  that  the  tomb  at  Arundel  was  always  believed 
to  be  cenotaph  till  a  reference  in  the  will  of  one 
Fooke  Eiton,  who  died  in  1454,  having  previously 
brought  the  Earl's  bones  from  France,  caused  a 
search  to  be  made  in  1857,  when  the  body  was 
duly  found.  The  most  conspicuous  of  the  monu- 
ments stands  in  the  centre  of  the  chancel  and 
commemorates  Earl  Thomas  Fitzalan  (d.  1415)  and 
his  wife  Beatrix,  daughter  of  a  Portuguese  king. 
On  a  most  ornate  altar-tomb  are  the  two  effigies 
with  curious  and  large  canopies. 

The  massive  tower  of  the  church  has  a  tall  lead 
roof  and  was  used  by  Waller  to  mount  guns 
during  his  siege  of  the  castle,  but  without  suffer- 
ing very  serious  damage.  By  the  river  there  still 


ARUNDEL  AND  LITTLEHAMPTON      113 

remain  traces  of  the  Maison  Dieu,  or  Hospital  of 
the  Holy  Trinity,  founded  like  the  church  by  the 
good  Earl  Richard,  but  its  walls  of  stone  and 
flint  and  chalk  were  sadly  battered  in  the  siege, 
and  subsequently  used  as  a  quarry  for  materials 
to  build  a  bridge  over  the  Arun. 

Arundel,  like  Sussex  generally,  was  vigorously 
on  the  side  of  John  Wilkes  in  that  gentleman's 
differences  with  George  III.  and  his  ministers 
(p.  253);  in  1754  he  had  been  admitted  to  the 
Sublime  Society  of  the  Beefsteaks,  and  a  little 
later  had  become  a  member  of  the  Hell  Fire 
Club  (p.  316).  The  Sussex  Weekly  Advertiser  or 
Lewes  Journal  (p.  278)  for  April,  1770,  records : 
"Wednesday  night  last,  almost  every  place  in 
this  County  had  illuminations  and  rejoicings,  on 
account  of  Mr.  Wilkes's  enlargement :  in  particular 
Chichester,  Arundel,  Grinstead,  Horsham,  Uckfield, 
&c.,  &c.  The  shew  was  very  elegant  at  Chichester, 
the  Cross  being  finely  illuminated  with  Forty-five* 
pounds  of  Candles ;  but  we  hear  there  were  many 
who  did  not  join  the  multitude,  who  had  their  win- 
dows broke  for  their  non-compliance.  It  is  said  a 
gentleman  in  a  small  town  in  this  county  gave 
the  ringers  a  crown  to  ring  the  bells  backwards, 
which  they  did,  but  at  night  his  windows  were 
broke."  From  the  same  paper  about  two  years 
later  we  get  an  account  of  a  happy  event  at 
Arundel  which  rather  illustrates  an  old  mediaeval 
proverb  about  the  best  kind  of  woman  to  marry ; 
it  is  a  point  of  view  not  wholly  incomprehensible 
to  our  own  age  of  gold.  "Was  married  at 
Arundel  in  this  county  Mr.  Henry  Blackman,  Wine 
Merchant,  in  this  town,  to  Miss  Best  of  the  same 

*  This  was  the   number  of   Wilkes's    paper,    the   North 
Briton,  complained  of. 

8 


114  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

place,  an  agreeable  young  lady  with  a  genteel 
fortune,  and  every  other  qualification  to  make 
the  Marriage  State  happy."*  In  the  eighteenth 
century  some  of  the  neighbouring  landowners 
had  town  houses  in  Arundel,  to  which  they  moved 
for  festivities  of  a  social  kind  during  part  of  the 
winter  months.  When  London  was  nearly  as 
far  off  as  New  York  is  now,  these  little  towns  had 
a  life  of  their  own  which  has  been  hopelessly 
destroyed  by  the  forces  that  work  to-day. 

The  sloping  streets  of  Arundel  contain  a  few 
old  houses  and  an  extraordinary  Town  Hall  in 
a  modern  Norman  style.  One  great  charm  of  our 
Sussex  towns  is  their  individuality ;  we  know  little 
of  the  comparative  sameness  of,  for  instance, 
East  Anglian  towns  with  their  market-places  and 
magnificent  Perpendicular  churches,  all  of  the 
same  general  type.  Each  Sussex  town  appears 
to  have  a  soul  of  its  own,  and  this  is  particularly 
so  at  Arundel.  The  spirit  of  an  elder  day  seems 
pleasantly  to  brood  over  the  place ;  here  feudalism 
is  still  triumphant ;  the  general  view  of  the  town 
proclaims  to  the  world  not  the  idiosyncrasies  of 
the  townspeople,  but  the  ideals  of  their  overlord. 
His  new  castle  entirely  overpowers  the  keep  of 
Roger  and  Albini ;  he  has  built  on  high  ground  a 
short  way  west  a  vast,  but  rather  soulless,  apsidal 
transepted  church  in  the  French  style  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  dedicating  it  to  the  rites  of 
Borne  under  the  patronage  of  St.  Philip  Neri.  The 
modern  church  crushes  the  old  and  with  the  new 
castle  completely  transforms  the  town,  and  notifies 
to  the  traveller  that  even  in  these  democratic  days 
the  head  of  the  house  of  Howard  can  in  the  vast- 
ness  of  his  conceptions  and  the  impressive  pro- 

*  K.  M.  Underbill,  articles  in  the  Guardian,  1910-1911, 


ARUNDEL  AND  LITTLEHAMPTON      115 

portions  of  his  buildings  eclipse  the  most  aesthetic 
of  the  more  ancient  house  of  Fitzalan. 

The  large  park,  stretching  for   miles  over  the 
Downs   with    its    sloping    expanses    of    turf,   its 
hanging  woods  extending  in  places  to  the  river, 
and  its  deer  peacefully  wandering  under  the  trees, 
is  one  of  the  largest  and  most  beautiful  in  Sussex. 
From    the    triangular    building    called    from   its 
Birmingham  architect  Hiorne's  Tower  there  is  a 
fine  view  over  the  water-gap  and  Weald.     At  the 
foot  of  the  Downs  south-east  of  the  town,  under 
the  "  hangers  "  of  the  park  and  not  far  from  the 
famous    inn    denominated   the    Black    Rabbit,   is 
Swanbourne   Lake,    a    beautiful    piece    of  water 
originally  formed  as  a  mill-pond,  and  in  that  con- 
nection mentioned  in  Domesday.     It   is  well  de- 
scribed at  the   end  of  M.  A.  Tierney's  History  of 
Arundel,  an  admirable  work  whose  writer  was  a 
Roman  priest  who  opposed  Cardinal  Wiseman  and 
papal  domination,  and  was   an    honoured   Sussex 
antiquarian    in    his     day    (1795-1862)  :    "  Of    the 
Swanbourne  Mills  only  one  remains  at  the  present 
day.     It  is  situated  beneath  the  castle,  on  the  east 
side,   at   the   head   of   the   stream    by  which   the 
ancient  *  Swanbourne  Lake '  discharges  itself  into 
the  river ;  and,  most  probably,  occupies  the  site  of 
the   original    building    mentioned    in    Domesday. 
Perhaps,  of  all  the  beautiful  spots  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of   Arundel,  none  comprises  more  real 
beauty  than  this.     The  valley  in  front,  shaded  by 
the  willows  and  ash  which  adorn  the  little  islands 
of  the  lake,  and  winding  its  way  in  the  distance 
amongst  the   hills ;   the   castle    projecting   boldly 
from  the  eminence  on  the  left,  and  seeming  as  if 
suspended  between  earth   and  heaven ;   the  steep 
acclivities  on  each  hand,  clothed  to  their  summit 


116  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

with  luxuriant  forest  trees,  or  exposing  at  in- 
tervals the  wild  and  rugged  surface  of  the  rock ; 
these  with  the  stillness  of  the  place,  unbroken 
save  by  the  voice  of  the  coot,  or  the  plash  of  the 
moor-hen  returning  to  her  haunt,  present  a  scene 
with  which  the  feelings  of  the  heart  will  most 
readily  unite  —  in  whose  presence  the  lapse  of 
centuries  will  be  easily  forgotten  and  the  mind, 
hasting  back  to  the  age  of  the  Confessor,  will  muse 
on  the  lake  and  stream  as  they  existed  then,  and 
fancy  itself  beside  the  mill  which  was  at  work 
nearly  eight  hundred  years  ago." 

A  little  farther  up  the  river,  on  the  Downs 
overlooking  the  water-gap,  where  the  stream  is 
divided,  is  the  village  of  Burpham,  chiefly  remark- 
able for  the  very  strong  promontory  fort  that 
was  evidently  made  by  some  people  whose  com- 
munications were  by  water.  Between  the  Arun 
and  a  little  tributary  stream  is  a  long  tongue  of 
land  whose  sides  have  been  scarped  and  across 
whose  base  from  valley  to  valley  is  an  agger  about 
25  feet  high  and  750  feet  long.  It  is  probably  an 
ancient  British  work ;  in  1858  an  oak  canoe, 
13  feet  9  inches  long  (now  in  Lewes  Castle),  was 
dug  out  of  the  river  mud  not  very  far  off  (in 
Burpham  parish),  having  a  wooden  anchor  that 
seemed  to  be  yew  and  to  all  appearance  of  Celtic 
construction.  Along  the  downside  in  the  valley 
of  the  tributary  stream  is  what  looks  like  an  old 
British  trackway,  now  known  as  the  Leper's  Path, 
from  its  having  led  traditionally  to  a  mediaeval 
lazar-house.  The  camp  is  undoubtedly  referred 
to  in  the  Burghal  Hidage,  which  seems  to  set 
forth  arrangements  made  early  in  the  tenth 
century,  during  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Elder, 
for  the  defence  of  Wessex  against  the  Danes.  It 


ARUNDEL  AND  LITTLEHAMPTON      117 

mentions  various  strongholds  and  assigns  to 
each  a  large  number  of  hides  ;  the  Sussex  ones 
are  Heorepeburan  or  Heorewburan  (unidentified), 
Hastingecestre  (Hastings),  Lathe  or  Lawe  (Lewes), 
Burhham  (a  form  which  makes  clear  the  deriva- 
tion of  our  village's  name),  and  Cisseceastre 
(Chichester).  These  do  not  correspond  to  the 
later  Rapes,  especially  in  making  no  provision  for 
the  river  now  known  as  the  Adur. 

The  present  village  stands  just  outside  the  burh 
after  which  it  is  named,  and  possesses  a  very 
interesting  church,  nearly  all  the  interior  stone- 
work of  which  is  chalk.  The  oldest  part  is  the 
north  wall  of  the  nave  with  a  tiny  Norman 
window;  late  Norman  arches  open  to  the  tran- 
septs, and  that  on  the  south  is  very  elaborate 
with  scallop  caps,  zigzag  mouldings,  and  some 
little  grotesque  heads.  Later  work  of  the  same 
(twelfth)  century  is  the  south  aisle  opening  by 
two  arches,  one  much  more  ornate  than  the  other, 
and  also  the  existing  chancel.  The  latter  is 
vaulted  in  two  bays — an  unusual  mode  of  roofing 
small  Sussex  churches;  the  heavy  ribs  rest  on 
plain  corbels  in  the  corners  and  on  clustered 
shafts  against  the  north  and  south  walls.  The 
original  small  lancets  have  been  supplemented  by 
later  windows ;  as  was  extremely  often  the  case 
in  Sussex  the  builders  did  not  get  the  chancel 
quite  in  line  with  the  nave.  The  ivy-mantled 
tower  is  a  Perpendicular  addition,  and  in  its  north- 
east corner  is  a  great  stair  turret  with  fern- 
covered  rubble  hip  roof ;  it  opens  into  the  west  end 
of  the  nave  by  a  plain  arch,  and  has  apparently 
its  original  wooden  roof  with  bell-hole.  A  grave- 
stone of  1789  depicts  for  us  a  jockey  on  horseback. 
Burpham,  with  its  beautiful  trees  and  gardens, 


118  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

has  an  almost  ideal  situation ;  behind  rise  the 
Downs  and  in  front  is  the  navigable  river.  To 
the  north,  more  than  half-way  through  Sussex 
toward  Surrey,  flows  and  ebbs  the  tide,  past  the  old 
Norman  church  and  Bishop  Rede's  fortified  manor- 
house  at  Amberley,  right  up  to  the  frequently 
flooded  head  of  the  old  fjord  at  Pulborough.  It  is 
a  region  full  of  interest  though  outside  the  scope 
of  this  book.  The  Stane  Street  close  by  Pul- 
borough crosses  the  river  and  at  Hardham,  half 
a  mile  away,  passes  through  the  only  undoubted 
Roman  camp  in  the  county  in  sight  of  the  remains 
of  an  Augustinian  priory  in  the  same  little  village. 
A  canal  connecting  the  Arun  with  the  Wey  and 
so  with  the  Thames  was  disused  and  allowed  to 
become  overgrown  about  thirty  years  ago. 

Only  just  clear  of  the  town  limits  of  Arundel 
on  the  south  is  the  tiny  village  of  Tortington, 
where  was  founded  during  the  twelfth  century 
a  small  priory  for  only  seven  or  eight  Augustinian 
Canons,  of  which  there  are  rather  scanty  remains, 
though  recent  excavation  has  largely  recovered 
the  ground-plan.  It  was  built  at  different  times  in 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries ;  the  church 
was  of  considerable  beauty,  and  it  might  be  thought 
rather  unnecessarily  large.  Tortington  Place,  the 
manor-house,  was  built  largely  of  the  materials  of 
the  priory  by  the  gentleman  commemorated  by  a 
brass  in  the  parish  church,  thus  inscribed — 

Behold  and  see  a  f reind  most  deare 
The  Lord  hath  taken  him  awaye 
Amend  your  lives  whilst  you  be  here 
For  flesh  and  bludd  must  needes  decay. 
Roger  Gratwik  Lorde  of  this  Mannor  of  Tort- 
-ington  Cheynesse  and  patrone  of  this  church 
Ended  this  mortall  life  ye  xxvth  Day  of  July  1596. 
Made   by  William  Gratwik  of   Eastmallinge   in   Kent   his 
executor." 


ARUNDEL  AND  LITTLEHAMPTON      119 

The  little  tree-shaded  building  consists  of  a  late 
Norman  nave  and  chancel  with  very  thick  walls 
to  which  a  south  aisle  was  added  in  the  early 
thirteenth  century.  The  little  splayed  east  window 
remains,  but  the  actual  opening  is  enlarged,  a 
fate  that  has  overtaken  the  two  other  original 
windows  that  survive.  The  chancel  arch  has  shafts 
and  grotesque  eagles'  beaks ;  loosened  by  slight 
settlements,  it  was  tightened  up  by  the  driving  in 
of  a  new  keystone  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
round  font  has  an  arcade  with  alternate  shafts 
and  pendent  ornaments.  The  aisle  arcade  of  two 
arches  has  a  round  pillar  with  foot-ornaments  ; 
the  original  south  door,  with  shafts  and  zigzag 
having  little  bunches  of  grapes  in  the  angles,  is 
reset  in  the  aisle  wall,  which  is  modern.  The 
pulpit  is  Jacobean. 

A  little  to  the  south,  on  the  river,  is  the  scat- 
tered village  of  Ford,  whose  small  church,  con- 
sisting of  nave  and  chancel,  with  a  white  bell-cot 
of  wood  very  similar  to  that  of  Tortington,  appears 
at  first  sight  greatly  to  resemble  its  neighbour, 
except  that  it  stands  in  open  fields  instead  of 
being  overshadowed  by  trees.  But,  instead  of 
being  uniform,  it  turns  out  on  investigation  to 
have  been  the  work  of  no  less  than  six  different 
periods,  as  is  shown  by  P.  M.  Johnston's  careful 
plan  published  in  S.A.C.  The  west  and  north 
walls  of  the  nave  he  believes  to  be  Saxon,  built 
about  1040  ;  the  arch  and  side  walls  of  the  chancel 
Early  Norman  of  about  1100 ;  while  some  eighty 
years  later  Transition  Norman  windows  were 
inserted  in  the  north  wall  of  the  nave.  During 
the  Early  English  period,  about  1250,  the  south 
door  and  two  lancets  in  the  chancel  were  inserted  ; 
during  the  Decorated  the  chancel  was  lengthened 


120  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

(c.  1320).  By  Perpendicular  architects  the  south 
wall  was  largely  rebuilt,  and  the  west  window 
was  constructed  about  the  year  1420;  while,  as 
if  all  this  were  not  enough  variety,  a  porch  was 
added  to  the  nave  in  the  time  of  Charles  I. 

Littlehampton,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  is  a 
very  modern-looking  and  by  no  means  particu- 
larly interesting  town.  Leland  has  the  following 
exiguous  entry  concerning  it :  "  At  the  Mouth  of 
Arundel  Streame  as  apon  the  Se  lyith  ii  toune- 
lettes  a  4.  Miles  from  Arundel.  The  hither  is 
caullid  Cudlo,  and  of  it  the  Haven  is  caullid  Cudlo 
Haven.  The  farther  is  caullid  Little  Hampton." 
A  more  detailed  account  is  to  be  gleaned  from  the 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  which  gives  a  description 
of  the  place  in  1834.  "Littlehampton  has  acquired 
many  warm  friends,  who  consider  it  unrivalled  by 
any  watering-places  on  the  southern  coast  for 
the  conveniences  of  bathing,  and  the  salubrity 
and  free  circulation  of  fine  air.  The  principal 
houses  stand  on  a  terrace  placed  about  200  yards 
from  the  sea,  a  distance  which  is  increased  to 
half  a  mile  at  low  water.  In  front  of  the  houses 
is  a  common  of  about  100  acres,  on  which  sheep 
only  are  permitted  to  feed;  and  children  can 
therefore  enjoy  their  pastimes  thereon  with  per- 
fect safety.  An  abundance  of  mushrooms  may 
be  gathered  on  this  common  at  the  proper  season. 
...  On  the  retiring  of  the  sea,  the  sands  are  of 
the  finest  kind,  firm  and  dry,  and  may  be  passed 
with  horses  and  carriages  so  far  as  Worthing.  .  .  . 
The  mildness  of  the  climate  is  shown  by  the 
myrtles,  which  grow  in  the  open  air  against  the 
houses."  The  same  account  gives  a  view  of  the 
little  mediaeval  church,  and  says  of  the  present 
one,  rather  flatteringly,  that  it  "is  not  remarkable 


ARUNDEL  AND  LITTLEHAMPTON      121 

for  any  skill  or  elegance  of  design."     Indeed  it  is 
not. 

The  common  is  now  kept  as  a  rough  garden, 
and  serves  to  give  some  individuality  to  the  front ; 
a  road  along  the  shore  leads  to  Rustington  Mill. 
In  the  other  direction  communications  with  Bog- 
nor  and  Chichester  have  been  considerably  short- 
ened by  the  new  (toll)  bridge  over  the  river. 
Shipbuilding  is  an  old  Littlehampton  industry, 
but  it  was  in  danger  of  becoming  extinct  when, 
in  1846,  the  existing  yards  were  started  by  one 
Harvey  from  Rye  ;  they  have  launched  vessels  up 
to  a  thousand  tons,  but  most  are  considerably 
smaller. 


UST  south  of  Arundel,  on  the  flat  plain, 
is  the  very  interesting  village  of  Ly- 
minster,  called  Lullingminster  in  Alfred's 
will.  Close  by  the  churchyard,  in  the 
swampy  meadows,  is  Knucker  Hole,  a  deep  open- 
ing with  a  spring,  where  only  harmless  fish  live 
now.  But  the  name  is  derived  from  Nicor,  a  water 
monster,  and  in  days  gone  by  a  fierce  dragon  lived 
there  and  terrorised  the  countryside.  Sussex  once 
suffered  much  from  such  creatures,  legends  of 
which  probably  grew  up  from  the  terror  inspired 
in  primeval  man  by  the  ungainly  monsters  whose 
forms  the  rocks  have  preserved.  However,  the 
King  had  a  daughter,  young,  beautiful,  and  good, 
and  he  promised  to  make  her  the  wife  of  whoever 
should  slay  the  dragon.  A  brave  Sussex  knight, 
who  had  been  distinguishing  himself  overseas, 
about  the  same  time  sailed  back  to  his  home.  So 
there  was  a  terrific  fight  followed  by  a  happy 
marriage,  mid  the  hearty  congratulations  of  the 
relieved  population,  and  descendants  of  the  illus- 
trious pair  are  still  living,  both  in  Lyminster  and 

129 


VILLAGES   ON  THE   PLAIN  123 

the  neighbouring  villages.  It  is  not  pretended 
that  all  the  circumstances  of  this  beautiful  story 
are  absolutely  unique,  but  the  information  about 
descendants  is  much  more  interesting  than  the 
hackneyed  ending  about  all  living  happily  ever 
after. 

Here  was  a  Saxon  nunnery,  but  Roger  of  Mont- 
gomery refounded  it  as  a  cell  of  Almanesches  in 
Normandy.  The  church  is  of  great  interest,  and 
the  nave  and  quire  are  of  "  Saxon  "  type,  both  very 
long  and  very  high,  perhaps  built  before  the  Con- 
quest, though  it  is  certain  that  for  some  years 
after  1066  churches  were  still  constructed  in  the 
old  style.*  Among  original  features  are  a  door 
and  a  window,  and  the  high  and  narrow  chancel 
arch  with  abaci  on  two  different  levels.  About 
a  century  after  the  Conquest  a  north  aisle  was 
added  to  the  nave,  the  old  wall  was  underpinned 
and  four  pointed  arches  resting  on  round  pillars 
with  scallop  and  foliage  caps  were  provided.  This 
difficult  operation  was  performed  with  insufficient 
skill,  and  in  the  fifteenth  century  a  striking  work 
to  support  the  fabric  was  inserted  in  the  form 
of  a  new  aisle  roof  of  solid  timber  beams  reaching 
the  ground  both  against  the  pillars  and  the  wall, 
an  arrangement  interesting,  unusual,  and  success- 
ful. Besides  the  aisle,  the  lower  part  of  the  tower 
and  most  of  the  present  chancel,  with  its  chapel, 
are  of  Early  English  date,  but  not  all  belonging 
to  quite  the  same  period.  The  twelfth-century 
square  marble  font,  like  so  many  other  Sussex 

*  It  would  be  surprising  if  this  were  not  so  ;  proof  seems 
to  be  afforded  by  the  fact  that  the  Saxon  tower  at  Branston 
has  details  clearly  copied  from  the  west  front  of  Lincoln 
Cathedral.  See  an  article  by  Hamilton  Thompson,  F.S.A., 
in  Memorials  of  Old  Lincolnshire. 


124  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

examples,  rests  on  a  low  pillar  and  corner  shafts. 
The  roof  is  covered  chiefly  with  slabs  of  a  cal- 
ciferous  sandstone  resembling  slate  that  is  found 
near  Horsham,  and  was  once  largely  used  for  the 
purpose.  It  is  a  very  heavy  material,  and  needs 
stout  timbers  underneath,  but  its  greyish  colour 
is  of  the  prettiest,  and  it  likes  to  be  overgrown 
with  lichen  and  moss.  In  1902,  during  a  restora- 
tion, was  discovered  on  the  roof  of  the  nave  the 
skeleton  of  a  kestrel  hawk  with  that  of  a  water- 
rat  in  its  mouth.  The  hawk  had  captured  in  the 
marshes  a  bigger  rat  than  he  could  manipulate, 
and  each  had  suffocated  the  other.  The  writer  has 
been  assured  by  a  person  resident  in  Chichester 
at  the  time,  that  when  the  spire  of  the  Cathedral 
fell  there  came  down  with  the  ruins  skeletons  of  a 
cat  and  a  rat,  the  latter  in  the  jaws  of  the  former. 
By  the  Arun,  quite  as  likely  as  by  any  other 
of  the  noble  rivers  of  Sussex,  may  have  hap- 
pened the  stirring  events  related  in  the  following 
Sussex  ballad,  preserved  by  James  Howell.  It  is 
peculiarly  gratifying  as  recording  at  least  one 
authentic  instance  of  the  sluggish  South  getting 
the  better  of  the  hustling  North : — 

"A  Northern  knight  from  the  Northern  Lands, 
He  came  a- wooing  to  me ; 

He  said  he  would  take  me  to  the  Northern  Lands 
And  there  he  would  marry  me. 

*  Go  fetch  me  some  of  your  father's  gold, 
And  some  of  your  mother's  fee, 
And  two  of  the  best  nags  out  of  the  stable, 
Where  there  stand  thirty  and  three.' 

She  fetched  him  some  of  her  father's  gold, 
And  some  of  her  mother's  fee, 
And  two  of  the  best  nags  out  of  the  stable, 
Where  there  stood  thirty  and  three. 


VILLAGES  ON  THE   PLAIN  125 

She  mounted  on  her  milk-white  steed 

And  he  on  the  dapple  grey  ; 

They  rode  till  they  came  to  a  fair  river's  side, 

Six  hours  before  it  was  day. 

'Dismount,  dismount  thy  milk-white  steed, 
And  deliver  it  unto  me ; 
For  six  pretty  maidens  I've  drowned  here, 
And  thou  the  seventh  shall  be.' 

'Pull  off,  pull  off  thy  silken  clothes 
And  deliver  them  unto  me, 
For  'tis  not  fitten  such  silken  clothes 
Should  rot  all  in  the  sea.' 

'  If  I  must  pull  off  my  silken  clothes, 
Pray  turn  thy  back  from  me  ; 
For  'tis  not  meet  such  a  ruffian  as  thou 
A  naked  maiden  should  see.' 

He  turned  his  back  unto  her, 

And  viewed  the  leaves  so  green  ; 

She  took  him  round  the  middle  so  small, 

And  tumbled  him  into  the  stream. 

He  dawled  high,  and  he  dawled  low, 
Until  he  came  to  the  side  ; 
'Take  hold  of  my  hand,  my  pretty  Pollee, 
And  thou  shalt  be  my  bride.' 

'Sir,  lie  thou  there,  false-hearted  man, 

Sir,  lie  there  instead  of  me  ; 

For  six  pretty  maidens  you've  drowned  there, 

The  seventh  has  drowned  theel" 

She  mounted  on  her  milk-white  steed 
And  led  the  dapple-grey  ; 
She  rode  till  she  came  to  her  father's  hall 
Three  hours  before  it  was  day. 

The  parrot  being  in  the  window  so  high, 
And  seeing  the  lady  did  say — 
'  What  ails  you,  what  ails  you,  my  pretty  ladie, 
That  you  travel  so  long  before  day  ? ' 


126  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

*  Don't  prittle  nor  prattle,  my  pretty  Police, 
Nor  tell  any  tales  by  me, 

And  your  cage  shall  be  made  of  glittering  gold, 
Though  now  it  be  made  of  tree.' 

Now  the  King  being  in  his  chamber  so  high, 
And  hearing  the  parrot,  did  say  : 
'  What  ails  you,  what  ails  you,  my  pretty  Police, 
That  you  prattle  so  long  ere  'tis  day  ? ' 

"Tis  no  laughing  matter,'  the  parrot  did  say, 
"Tis  no  laughing  matter,'  says  she  ; 
'For  the  cats  had  got  into  the  window  so  high, 
And  I  was  af eared  they'd  have  me.' 

'  Well  turned,  well  turned,  my  pretty  Police, 
Well  turned,  well  turned  for  me  ; 
Your  cage  shall  be  made  of  the  glittering  gold, 
And  the  door  of  the  best  ivorie.'  " 

About  two  miles  south-west  of  Lyminster  is  the 
once  quiet  little  village  of  Rustington,  close  to 
the  sea.  There  is  a  windmill  by  the  shore ;  once  it 
was  a  lonely  spot,  now  villas  and  bungalows  are 
growing  up,  there  is  a  large  Metropolitan  Asylums 
Home,  and  a  motor  road  full  of  sharp  little  flints 
leads  along  the  seaside  to  Littlehampton.  This 
part  of  the  coast  is  not  romantic  as  to  scenery, 
just  low  cliffs  of  clayey  mud  and  a  shingle  shore 
with  numerous  wooden  groins,  these  being 
designed  to  protect  the  land  by  preventing,  or 
at  least  retarding,  the  eternal  eastward  drifting 
of  the  stones  promoted  by  the  currents  of  ocean. 
Rustington  church  is  of  some  interest,  the  south 
arcade  is  transition  Norman  to  Early  English 
(c.  1170),  with  arches  just  pointed  and  pillars 
round  and  octagonal,  with  scallop  or  stiff  foliage 
caps.  About  the  same  date  is  the  tower  with 
pilaster  buttresses  and  windows,  each  of  two 


VILLAGES  ON  THE  PLAIN  127 

round-headed  lights,  a  shaft  between,  under  a 
pointed  arch.  The  parapet  is  much  later,  dated 
in  bricks  1661.  The  one-handed  clock  is  probably 
of  about  the  same  period,  two-handed  timepieces 
having  been  introduced  into  England  about  1670 ; 
but  it  is  only  a  Sussex  work  by  naturalisation, 
having  been  given  here  a  home  after  being 
ignominiously  turned  out  of  the  church  at  Great 
Bedwyn  in  Wiltshire.  Just  a  little  later  than  the 
south  arcade  is  the  north  transept,  with  a  hagio- 
scope to  the  chancel  and  part  of  the  rood  stair ; 
it  has  original  arches  opening  into  nave  and  aisle, 
but  the  north  arcade  otherwise  consists  of  two 
wide  moulded  Perpendicular  arches,  their  pillar 
unfurnished  with  a  capital.  On  the  north,  and 
against  the  tower,  are  plain  old  timber  porches. 
A  bas-relief  that  seems  part  of  an  Elizabethan 
monument  represents  Christ  standing  before  the 
cross,  from  whose  arms  hang  a  scourge  and  what 
seems  meant  for  a  bunch  of  hyssop. 

The  next  village  is  Preston,  once  the  property  of 
the  See  of  Chichester,  and  from  one  of  the  letters 
of  his  steward  Simon  of  Seinliz  to  Bishop  Ralph 
Neville  (p.  85),  we  gather  that  the  language  of 
modern  society  was  not  wholly  unknown  to  the 
thirteenth  century.  "  The  Archbishop  is  moving 
about  Sussex.  He  will  stay  one  night  at  your 
manor  of  Tarring,  and  thence  proceed  to  your 
manor  at  Preston.  He  means  to  be  lodged  there 
at  his  own  cost,  but  you  had  better  offer  to  defray 
his  expenses ;  it  will  look  well,  and  I  know  he 
will  not  accept."  The  church  is  long  and  narrow, 
without  a  chancel  arch,  on  the  north  is  a  Norman 
door,  the  east  window  has  an  arcade  of  three 
lancet  arches,  the  shafts  and  abaci  of  Purbeck 
marble,  the  rest,  including  foliage  capitals,  of 


128  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

plain  stone,  giving  a  striking  and  rather  unusual 
effect.  The  Perpendicular  tower  is  surmounted  by 
a  stone  spire,  a  feature  rare  in  Sussex  ;  in  fact,  the 
only  other  mediaeval  ones  are  three — at  Chiddingly, 
Northiam,  and  Dallington,  the  two  latter  about 
contemporary  with  that  of  Preston,  the  former 
more  than  a  century  earlier.  The  stones  that 
once  composed  the  spire  of  Chichester  Cathedral 
now  form  a  Dissenting  chapel  at  Funtington,  a 
building  destitute  of  beauty  so  far  as  fabric  goes, 
but  at  its  opening  the  text  of  the  sermon  is 
reported  to  have  been :  "  The  glory  of  this  latter 
house  shall  be  greater  than  of  the  former." 

Next  to  the  village  bearing  the  not  unusual 
name  of  Preston  is,  or  rather  was,  one  with  the 
still  less  uncommon  designation  of  Kingston. 
Sussex  possesses  110  less  than  three  villages  that 
bear  that  name ;  one  is  on  the  Downs  near  Lewes, 
a  second  is  by  the  sea,  this  particular  example  is 
under  the  sea,  and  only  a  remnant  of  its  parish 
remains  dry.  There  is  little  more  than  a  single 
farm.  This  district  has  always  been  excellent 
for  agriculture ;  Arthur  Young  says  the  whole 
maritime  plain  is  of  a  rich  loam,  probably  equal  to 
any  in  the  kingdom,  and  he  pays  its  people  some 
well-deserved  compliments  ;  for  instance :  "  The 
pleasing  manner  which  the  farmers  adopt  .  .  . 
of  stacking  their  corn  on  circular  stone  piers, 
cannot  be  admired  too  much."  It  requires  some 
art  and  attention  in  the  construction  of  these 
stacks,  but  it  is  no  small  commendation  that  it 
most  effectually  prevents  all  vermin  from  lodging 
in  the  sheaves. 

Ferring,  like  Preston,  consists  of  two  little 
villages,  one  a  mere  hamlet  of  the  other,  but 
distinguished  as  East  and  West.  The  parish 


VILLAGES  ON  THE  PLAIN  129 

stretches  northward  to  the  Downs,  and  includes 
Highdown  Hill,  which  is  crowned  by  the  famous 
Miller's  Tomb.  John  Oliver,  versifier  and  miller, 
prepared  this  last  resting-place  in  1776,  and  at 
the  age  of  eighty-four  was  brought  to  occupy 
it  in  1793,  the  novelty  and  eccentricity  of  the 
proceeding  attracting  an  immense  concourse  of 
people.  His  epitaphs  are  lengthy  even  for  the 
century  in  which  he  lived ;  they  were  largely 
engraved  by  himself,  and  include  samples  of  his 
own  poetry.  One  of  them  is  a  sort  of  apologia. 

"Why  should  my  fancy  any  one  offend, 
Whose  good  or  ill  does  not  on  it  depend  ; 
'Tis  at  my  own  expense,  except  the  land, 
A  generous  grant  on  which  my  tomb  doth  stand ; 
This  is  the  only  spot  that  I  have  chose 
Wherein  to  take  my  lasting  long  repose ; 
Here  in  the  dust  my  body  lieth  down, 
You'll  say  it  is  not  consecrated  ground — 
I  grant  the  same,  but  where  shall  we  e'er  find 
The  spot  that  e'er  can  purify  the  mind ; 
Nor  to  the  body  any  lustre  give, 
This  more  depends  on  WHAT  A  LIFE  WE  LIVE  ; 
For  when  the  trumpet  shall  begin  to  sound 
T'will  not  avail  e'en  where  the  body's  found  1 " 

On  the  same  hill  is  an  ancient  camp  with 
entrance  to  the  south-west.  Excavation  has 
revealed  a  Saxon  burial-ground  within  its  area, 
the  graves  being  nearly  all  east  and  west,  head 
to  the  latter  point,  their  date  probably  the  late 
sixth  century.  Many  objects  of  great  interest 
were  found,  including  an  iron  barbed  spear  thirty 
inches  long,  with  socket  for  wooden  shaft,  of  the 
kind  called  angon,  extremely  rare  in  this  country, 
though  not  uncommon  in  ancient  Burgundian  and 
Frankish  graves.  There  was  a  beautiful  glass 

9 


130  THE  SUSSEX   COAST 

vase  with  a  hound  pursuing  two  hares  among 
ferns  and  a  Greek  inscription.  There  were  bronze 
implements,  including  a  very  perfect  gouge  ;  there 
were  gilt  bronze  brooches,  some  in  the  form  of 
birds,  others  of  crosses  within  circles  ;  one  was 
inlaid  with  silver  and  set  with  garnets.  Evidently 
the  Saxons  were  beginning  to  appreciate  the 
civilisation  they  had  once  despised,  they  may 
have  had  some  commerce  with  the  south  of 
Europe;  the  north  of  England  undoubtedly  had, 
as  is  evidenced  by  the  occasion  of  Gregory's  bad 
puns. 

These  works  of  art  are  all  preserved  in  Ferring 
Grange,  a  large  modern  house,  just  north  of  which 
is  the  little  towerless  church.  In  its  southern 
wall  is  a  tiny  Norman  window  of  very  early  date ; 
the  rest  is  largely  Early  English,  the  three  lancets 
over  the  altar  with  marble  shafts  have  been 
clumsily  replaced  with  a  window  of  Perpendicular 
character ;  the  arcade  of  four  arches  with  round 
pillars  has  been  crudely  buttressed  by  a  fourteenth- 
century  wall  across  the  narrow  aisle,  which  is 
pierced  by  an  arch  and  indented  by  a  little  trefoil- 
headed  stoup. 

The  short  distance  to  Goring  may  be  accom- 
plished by  a  wide  field  path,  just  south  of  which 
grows  a  fine  avenue  of  ilex  trees ;  an  ancient 
cemetery  in  these  parts,  dating  from  early  days 
of  the  Saxon  settlement,  yielded  many  skulls  of 
the  long  type  characteristic  of  Frisians,  one 
of  various  indications  that  Sussex  was  not  by 
any  means  settled  exclusively  by  Saxons  after 
the  Roman  days. 

Goring  was  visited  nearly  three  centuries  ago  by 
a  gentleman  of  the  name  of  John  Taylor  during  a 
yachting  tour,  of  which  he  published  a  poetical 


VILLAGES  ON  THE   PLAIN  131 

account,  entitled  A  Discovery  by  Sea  from  London 
to  Salisbury,  1623.  His  remarks  are  unflattering, 
but  things  have  changed  very  much  since  his  day. 

"A  Town  called  Goreing  stood  neere  two  miles  wide, 
To  which  we  went  and  had  our  wants  supplide  : 
There  we  relieved  ourselves  (with  good  compassion) 
With  meat  and  lodging  of  the  homely  fashion. 
To  bed  we  went  in  hope  of  rest  and  ease 
But  all  beleaguered  with  an  host  of  fleas  : 
Who  in  their  fury  nip'd  and  skip'd  so  hotly 
That  all  our  skins  were  almost  turned  to  motley. 
When  we  (opprest  with  their  increasing  pow'rs) 
Were  glad  to  yeeld  the  honour  of  the  day 
Unto  our  foes  and  rise  and  runne  away. 

The  night  before  a  Constable  there  came, 
Who  asked  my  trade,  my  dwelling,  and  my  name, 
My  business,  and  a  troupe  of  questions  more, 
And  wherefore  we  did  land  upon  that  shore  ? 
To  whom  I  framed  my  answers  true  and  fit, 
(According  to  his  plenteous  want  of  wit) 
But  were  my  words  all  true  or  if  I  li'd 
With  neither  could  I  get  him  satisfied. 
He  asked  if  we  were  Pyrats  ?    We  said  No, 
(As  if  we  had  we  would  have  told  him  so). 
He  said  that  Lords  would  sometimes  enterprise 
T'escape  and  leave  the  Kingdome  in  disguise  : 
But  I  assur'd  him  on  my  honest  word 
That  I  was  no  disguised  Knight  or  Lord." 

However,  the  results  were  not  satisfactory,  and 
poor  John  Taylor  suffered  more  from  the  Con- 
stable and  "his  associates." 

The  large  church  is  nearly  all  modern,  but 
retains  round  pillars  of  about  1170,  not  unlike 
those  at  Rustington,  though  squeezed  into  the 
scallop  caps  are  curious  little  ferns.  There  is  a 
brass  figure  in  armour  with  lady.  Adjoining  the 
churchyard  are  slight  ruins  of  a  mediasval  manor- 
house. 


j  Bro  a  (heater  Church  \ 

HIS  is  a  pleasant  town  on  the  flat 
shore,  with  the  Downs  rising  only  a 
mile  or  two  inland.  The  place  seems 
to  breathe  the  spirit  of  the  early 
nineteenth  century  with  its  porticoed 
chapel  of  ease,  now  called  St.  Paul's, 
its  towered  town  hall,  its  walls  of 
round  flint  or  Roman  cement,  and  its  evergreen 
euonymus  hedges.  Entered  by  a  triumphal  arch 
with  bearded  figures  and  facing  its  own  beautiful 
trees  and  lawns,  is  Park  Crescent,  of  which  Hors- 
field  wrote  enthusiastically,  "This  modern  and 
elegant  suite  of  buildings  is  decidedly  the  chef 
d'ceuvre  of  Worthing,  if  not  of  the  Sussex  coast.'* 
Among  the  institutions  of  the  town  are  a  Library 
and  Art  Gallery,  with  a  beautiful  collection  of 
British  birds  as  far  as  possible  set  in  their  natural 
environment. 

132 


WORTHING  133 

In  1901  was  discovered  at  West  Worthing  a 
Roman  stone  inscribed  in  four  lines — 

DIVI 

CONSTNT 
PII  AVG 
FILIO 

evidently  referring  to  Constantine  the  Great, 
Christianiser  of  Rome.  There  was  a  line  of 
Roman  settlements  along  the  whole  Sussex  shore, 
and  some  sort  of  trackway  must  have  connected 
them,  though  no  satisfactory  traces  of  a  regular 
road  are  to  he  found  (Codrington).  Roman 
remains  of  one  kind  or  another  are  constantly 
being  discovered. 

West  Worthing  corresponds  with  the  old  parish 
of  Heene,  whose  church,  dedicated  to  St.  Botolph 
(p.  155),  having  been  long  disused  from  absence  of 
population,  was  taken  down  by  faculty  in  1766. 
The  east  wall  of  flint  and  chalk  with  a  broken 
piscina  remains,  but  stands  clear  of  the  new  church 
of  flint  and  brick  with  shingled  spire.  Seakale 
(Crambe  maritima)  grows  wild  along  this  shore, 
and  is  now  extensively  cultivated  in  the  market 
gardens  for  which  the  district  has  long  been  noted ; 
greenhouses  are  also  exceedingly  numerous,  de- 
signed rather  for  commerce  than  ornament. 

Half  a  mile  or  so  to  the  north  is  the  beautiful 
village  of  West  Tarring,  formerly  a  residence  of 
the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury  and  one  of  their 
peculiars  on  the  way  to  Chichester.  A  mediaeval 
building  with  two-light  transomed  Perpendicular 
windows  and  older  walls  is  thought  to  have  been 
their  house ;  it  is  called  the  Old  Palace  and  used 
as  the  village  school.  Becket  is  said  to  have  been 
there  sometimes  and  to  have  encouraged  the  plant- 


134  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

ing  of  fig-trees,  for  which  the  place  is  still  famous. 
The  trees  were  probably  introduced  by  the  Fecamp 
monks,  whose  abbey  was  a  great  centre  of  fig- 
growing  ever  since  the  Holy  Grail  traditionally 
floated  to  them  in  a  fig-tree,  which,  being  rescued 
from  the  sea,  they  planted  with  the  happiest 
results.  The  fame  of  Tarring  figs  would  seem  to 
have  travelled  beyond  the  limits  of  the  human 
race  if  there  be  any  truth  in  the  oft-repeated  story 
of  how  the  little  white-breasted  brown  birds  called 
beccaficoes  annually  fly  over  from  the  Continent 
to  eat  them.  Richard,  Bishop  of  Chichester  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  who  won  the  love  of  the 
diocese  as  few  other  bishops  have  done  by  going 
about  among  the  people  doing  good — his  imme- 
diate predecessor  having  spent  much  of  his  time 
in  London  attending  to  his  duties  as  Lord  Chan- 
cellor— lived  in  this  village  very  largely  while 
deprived  of  the  revenues  of  the  See  by  the  dispute 
with  Henry  III.,  and  its  parish  priest,  Simon, 
became  one  of  his  firmest  friends.  The  good 
bishop  enjoyed  country  pursuits ;  he  used  to  work 
in  the  garden  tending  the  fig-trees  and  otherwise. 
Sometimes  he  went  fishing.  At  his  own  palace 
after  the  dispute  was  settled  he  dispensed  a 
splendid  hospitality  both  to  rich  and  poor;  he 
tried  to  maintain  a  high  level  of  conversation  at 
table  and  kept  a  notebook  to  record  any  remark 
that  seemed  worth  it.  Would  that  the  document 
were  extant;  it  probably  contained  observations 
more  interesting  than  our  chronic  abuse  of  our 
Governments  and  our  climate.  Richard  was  no 
believer  in  severe  asceticism  for  all  his  clergy,  and, 
in  fact,  gave  the  tithes  of  Stoughton  to  refresh  the 
canons  of  his  cathedral  with  ale.  He  died  at  Dover 
in  1253  while  engaged  in  preaching  a  crusade ;  his 


WORTHING  135 

body  was  taken  to  Chichester,  and  his  tomb  in  the 
cathedral  (p.  35)  became  the  chief  Sussex  shrine, 
attracting  pilgrims  from  afar.  Their  behaviour  at 
times  left  something  to  be  desired,  and  they  were 
apt  to  use  their  long,  painted  rods  for  purposes  to 
which,  however  suitable,  they  had  never  been 
designed.  Their  difficulty  was  to  settle  questions 
of  precedence,  matters  that  should  have  been  far 
from  their  minds  at  such  a  time,  even  if  for  the 
moment  the  rules  so  carefully  laid  down  in  St. 
Matthew  xxiii.  6-12  had  slipped  their  memories. 
St.  Richard  made  a  profound  impression  on 
Sussex,  though  only  one  mediaeval  church — at 
Heathfield — and  that  by  no  means  for  certain, 
was  dedicated  to  him.  The  village  fair  is  held 
in  April,  and  may  have  been  originally  on  St. 
Richard's  Day;  an  old  woman  is  fabled  to  attend 
and  to  let  out  from  her  basket  the  first  Sussex 
cuckoo  (see  Miss  Arnold- Forster's  Studies  in  Church 
Dedications).  Besides  being  honoured  in  Sussex 
Richard  was  held  in  the  highest  esteem  in  his 
own  birthplace,  Droitwich,  where,  as  Holinshed 
not  very  reverently  records,  "  Some  saie  (or  rather 
fable)  that  this  salt  spring  did  faile  in  the  time  of 
Richard  de  la  Wich  bishop  of  Chichester,  and  that 
afterwards  by  his  intercession  it  was  restored  to 
the  profit  of  the  old  course  (such  is  the  supersti- 
tion of  the  people)  in  remembrance  whereof  or 
peraduenture  for  the  zeale  which  the  Wich  men 
and  salters  did  beare  vnto  Richard  de  la  Wich 
their  countriman,  they  vsed  of  late  times  on  his 
daie  (which  commeth  once  in  the  yeare)  to  hang 
this  salt  spring  or  well  about  with  tapistrie,  and 
to  haue  sundrie  games,  drinkings,  and  foolish 
reuels  at  it."  Still  farther  afield  the  fame  of  St. 
Richard  was  to  travel,  and  perhaps  his  strangest 


136  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

fate  is  to  have  become  the  patron  of  the  Coach- 
man's Gild  at  Milan. 

The  fine  church  at  Tarring  seems  from  its 
mouldings  to  be  a  little  later  than  the  time  of  St. 
Richard.  Its  arcades  have  round  pillars,  and  the 
hood  moulds  of  the  arches  on  both  sides  have 
foliage  corbels,  both  aisles  and  clearstory  have 
lancets ;  those  in  the  latter  are  over  the  pillars 
and  deeply  splayed  downwards.  Both  tower  and 
chancel  were  rebuilt  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
over  the  former  rises  a  tall  wooden  spire  covered 
with  oaken  shingles.  There  are  carved  miserere 
stalls,  and  the  low  screen  preserves  its  original 
iron  spikes  along  the  top.  Modern  mosaics  by 
Italian  workmen  cover  much  of  the  wall  space 
and  look  as  if  they  had  lost  their  way.  The  tower 
window  has  glass  to  the  memory  of  Southey, 
whose  daughter  married  a  former  rector  named 
Warter.  In  the  old  font  of  this  church  Australian 
babies  are  received  into  the  faith  ;  it  stands  in 
Melbourne  Cathedral. 

Just  north  of  Tarring  is  its  hamlet,  Salvington, 
of  which  Horsfield  says  in  a  somewhat  flowery 
passage,  "To  the  lover  of  antiquities,  to  the  lover 
of  freedom,  and  to  the  admirer  of  God's  noblest 
work — an  honest  man — to  the  scholar,  the  patriot, 
and  the  moralist,  this  hamlet  must  offer  ample 
temptations  to  a  visit ;  for  here,  in  a  house  called 
Lacies,  was  born,  the  eldest  son  of  plebeian  parents, 
him  who  became  afterwards  the  erudite,  conscien- 
tious defender  of  his  country's  liberties — John 
Selden."  The  "  house  called  Lacies "  is  a  tiny 
cottage.  The  parish  register  records  in  1584 
"  John,  the  son  of  John  Selden  the  minstrell,  was 
baptised."  He  was  educated  at  the  Free  Grammar 
School  of  Chichester;  it  was  much  easier  then 


WORTHING  137 

than  it  afterwards  became  for  a  man  to  rise  from 
the  ranks,  and  Selden's  career  has  some  points  of 
resemblance  with  that  of  Roger  Ascham.  He  won 
everybody's  respect,  and  Clarendon  says  of  him, 
"  He  was  a  person  whom  no  character  can  flatter, 
or  transmit  any  expressions  equal  to  his  merit  and 
virtue.  He  was  of  so  stupendous  a  learning  in  all 
kinds  and  in  all  languages — as  may  appear  in  his 
excellent  writings — that  a  man  would  have  thought 
he  had  been  entirely  conversant  amongst  books, 
and  had  never  spent  an  hour  but  in  reading  and 
writing."  In  1636  he  dedicated  to  the  king  his 
Mare  Clausum,  written  in  answer  to  Mare  Liberum, 
in  which  Grotius  had  maintained  the  right  of  the 
Dutch  to  fish  in  English  waters.  In  1640  he  was 
sent  to  represent  Oxford  University  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  in  the  disputes  that  followed  he 
was  on  the  side  of  the  Parliament,  but  looked  at 
the  whole  matter  from  a  legal  standpoint  and 
would  not  go  so  far  as  many.  He  refused  Crom- 
well's invitation  to  answer  Eikon  Basilike.  His 
learning  inclined  him  to  more  tolerance  than 
was]  the  fashion  of  that  age,  and  his  constantly 
referring  the  members  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly  to  the  original  Hebrew  or  Greek 
instead  of  their  pocket  gilt-edged  editions  of 
the  Scriptures  was  little  appreciated  by  those 
eminent  divines. 

His  secretary,  who  afterwards  became  Canon 
Milward,  of  Windsor,  compiled  a  volume  of  "the 
excellent  things  that  usually  fell  from  him,"  which 
in  1689  was  published  under  the  title  Selden's  Table 
Talk,  a  work  greatly  and  justly  admired  by  Dr. 
Johnson.  A  few  quotations  will  give  some  idea 
of  Selden's  general  attitude  to  life. 

"To  have  no  Ministers  but  Presbyters  'tis  as  if 


138  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

in  the  Temporal  State  they  should  have  no  officers 
but  Constables." 

"A  Bishop  as  a  Bishop  had  never  any  Ecclesias- 
tical Jurisdiction  ;  for  as  soon  as  he  was  Electus 
confirmatus,  that  is,  after  the  three  Proclamations 
in  Bow  Church,  he  might  exercise  jurisdiction 
before  he  was  consecrated;  yet  till  then  he  was 
no  Bishop,  neither  could  he  give  Orders." 

"It  is  a  vain  thing  to  talk  of  an  heretic,  for  a 
man  from  his  heart  can  think  no  otherwise  than 
he  does  think.  In  the  primitive  times  there  were 
many  opinions,  nothing  scarce,  but  some  or  other 
held.  One  of  these  opinions  being  embraced  by 
some  prince,  and  received  into  his  kingdom,  the 
rest  were  condemned  as  heresies ;  and  his  religion, 
which  was  but  one  of  the  several  opinions,  first  is 
said  to  be  orthodox,  and  so  to  have  continued  ever 
since  the  apostles." 

"They  talk  (but  blasphemously  enough)  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  president  of  their  general 
councils,  when  the  truth  is,  the  odd  man  is  still 
the  Holy  Ghost." 

"A  King  is  a  thing  men  have  made  for  their 
own  sakes,  for  quietness  sake.  Just  as  in  a  family 
one  man  is  appointed  to  buy  the  meat." 

"  Equity  is  a  Roguish  thing,  for  Law  we  have  a 
measure.  .  .  .  Equity  is  according  to  the  Conscience 
of  him  that  is  Chancellor  and  as  that  is  larger  or 
narrower,  so  is  Equity.  'Tis  all  one  as  if  they 
should  make  the  standard  for  the  measure  we  call 
(a  Foot)  a  Chancellor's  foot." 

"Of  all  Actions  of  a  Man's  Life,  his  Marriage 
does  least  concern  other  people,  yet  of  all  Actions 
of  our  Life  'tis  most  meddled  with  by  other 
People." 

Worthing  itself  is  mostly  in  the  old  parish  of 


WORTHING  139 

Broadwater,  whose  Green  is  reached  by  a  short 
footpath  over  flinty  fields  from  Tarring,  and  whose 
cruciform  church  is  one  of  the  finest  in  Sussex. 
The  original  building  was  Norman  with  transept- 
less  central  tower,  the  east  and  west  arches,  each 
with  three  shafts  aside,  enriched  with  palm-leaves, 
zigzag,  lozenge,  eagle's  beak,  and  other  ornaments. 
The   foundations    settled    somewhat,    the   eastern 
arch  is  out  of  shape,  and  in  a  later  age  curious 
little  buttresses  have  been  constructed  to  support 
it  against  the  chancel  walls.     In  the  Early  English 
period  the   west  tower  arch   was   narrowed   and 
rebuilt  in  lancet  form  with  the  old  carved  stones ; 
the  effect  is  singular.     The  low  tower  has  corner 
shafts  and  single-light  windows,  whose  inner  and 
outer  arches  are  round  or  just  pointed  and  vary 
strangely  in  different  examples ;  the  stair  turret 
has  been  taken  down,  except  the  lower  part,  in 
order  to  reduce  the  weight.     The  chancel  of  four 
bays  is  a  striking  example  of  Early  English;   a 
string  course  with  zigzag  and  pellet  runs  round, 
"hook"  corbels  (resembling  those  of  New  Shore- 
ham,  with  large  loops  between  them  and  the  wall) 
support  little  clustered  shafts  on  which  rests  the 
quadrapartite  vaulting;  its  ribs  in  the  two  west 
bays  are  left  unmoulded.     Plain  large  lancets  let 
in  light.     Still  in  the  Early  English  period  tran- 
septs were  added,  opening  by  plain  arches  pierced 
through  the   tower  walls  and  breaking   Norman 
windows,  their  orders  square  and  plainly  bevelled  ; 
substantially  similar  arches,  three  in  each,  opened 
to   the  eastern   aisles  which   the  transepts  once 
possessed.     Nearly  all  the  Early  English  work  is 
for   a   church    of   such    dimensions   rather   plain, 
shafts  and  other  ornamental  details  being  most 
stingily    supplied.      The     Decorated    nave     (with 


140  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

earlier  fragments)  was  rebuilt  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  the  responds  (one  of  them  merely  a  large 
corbel)  and  much  of  the  walls  and  windows  being 
retained.  It  has  four  bays  and  is  very  little 
longer  than  the  chancel.  The  north  porch  has  a 
curious  round  opening  in  its  western  wall,  whose 
use  is  far  from  clear,  and  it  has  been  rather  clouded 
than  elucidated  by  discussion.  The  arcades  have 
round  pillars  with  octagonal  caps  and  tall,  pointed 
arches ;  each  clearstory  wall  has  outside  a  large 
cross  of  inlaid  flint ;  the  earlier  roof  was  three  or 
four  feet  lower,  and  its  gable  line  can  still  be  seen 
on  the  tower.  Parts  of  the  Perpendicular  masonry 
are  of  slate-coloured  stone. 

There  remain  the  corbels  that  held  up  the  rood 
loft ;  it  crossed  the  reconstructed  arch  in  a  very 
awkward  way.  Besides  some  fifteenth-century 
brasses  there  are  two  large  monuments  of  Renais- 
sance type.  One  is  in  the  chancel,  to  the  eighth 
Lord  de  la  Warr  (d.  1526),  a  fine  work  with  fan- 
tracery  vaulting  and  pendants  under  the  canopy, 
very  classic  in  feeling.  The  other,  in  the  south 
transept,  is  to  the  ninth  lord,  carver  to  Henry  VIII. 
among  other  occupations,  who  made  for  himself  in 
Boxgrove  Priory  "  a  powr  chapell  to  be  buryed  yn," 
but  this  was  not  to  be.  He  died  in  1554.  His 
monument  is  simpler  than  the  other,  and  has  been 
shaved  off  in  front,  but  some  stiffly  carved  figures, 
arms,  pendants,  and  bands  of  rose  pattern  remain 
wonderfully  fresh.  On  the  chancel  floor  is  an  old 
altar  stone.  The  register  begins  in  1558 ;  the  early 
entries  are  neatly  written  in  Latin;  there  are 
three  columns  for  christenings,  marriages,  and 
burials,  but  the  weddings  are  very  few. 

Nearly  three  miles  north  and  high  up  among  the 
Downs,  reached  through  a  region  devoted  to  golf, 


WORTHING  141 

is  Cissbury,  the  most  interesting  of  Sussex  camps. 
It  was  excavated  by  Pitt  Rivers,  and  dates  from 
early  Neolithic  times.  Its  form  is  oval  more  or 
less,  its  circuit  is  about  a  mile  and  a  quarter,  and 
its  area  some  sixty  acres.  The  fosse  and  agger  are 
well  preserved,  and  the  greatest  height  from  the 
bottom  of  the  former  to  the  top  of  the  latter 
measured  on  the  slope  is  over  50  feet.  It  is 
partly  thrown  up  over  yet  older  circular  pits  made 
in  digging  flints.  Rabbits  are  doing  enormous 
harm  to  it,  but  they  probably  know  no  better, 
which  is  more  than  can  be  said  for  members  of  the 
human  race  who  carve  their  insignificant  names 
on  the  smooth  turf. 

From  the  ramparts  one  gets  a  glorious  view 
over  fold  upon  fold  of  downland,  furrowed  by 
the  Adur  valley  to  the  east ;  to  the  north  is 
Chanctonbury  Ring,  some  three  miles  off,  the 
maritime  plain  thickset  with  towns  and  villages  to 
the  south,  and  over  it  the  waters  of  the  Channel. 
The  life  of  the  men  who  lived  here  once,  when 
perhaps  Cissbury  was  the  Sheffield  of  the  South, 
has  been  painted  in  words  by  T.  Rice  Holmes. 
"  Roaming  over  sand  or  moor  or  upland,  looking 
for  the  tools  that  those  old  workers  wrought,  in 
the  midst  of  the  monuments  that  their  hands  up- 
reared.  Not  the  outward  life  alone  comes  back  to 
us — the  miner  with  lamp  and  pick  creeping  down 
the  shaft;  the  cutler  toiling  amid  a  waste  of  flints; 
herdsmen  following  cattle  on  the  downs ;  girls 
milking  at  sundown ;  lithe  swarthy  hunters  return- 
ing from  the  chase  ;  fowlers  in  their  canoes  gliding 
over  the  meres ;  serfs  hauling  blocks  up  the  hillside 
to  build  the  chambers  in  yonder  barrow ;  the 
funeral  feast ;  the  weird,  sepulchral  rites ;  the 
bloody  strife  for  the  means  of  subsistence  between 


142  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

clan  and  clan — >we  think  also  of  the  meditations 
of  the  architects  who  created  those  monuments  in 
memory  of  the  dead  and  of  the  adventurous  lives 
of  those  who  were  thus  honoured  ;  of  their  survi- 
vors' desperate  denial  of  death's  finality ;  of  the 
immeasurably  slow,  agelong  movement  of  expand- 
ing civilisation  ;  of  the  influence  of  superstition, 
paralysing,  yet  ever  tending  to  consolidate  society ; 
of  the  enthusiast  whose  thoughts  soared  above  the 
common  level ;  of  the  toil  that  spent  itself  in  mil- 
lenniums past,  but  is  still  yielding  fruit ;  of  unre- 
corded deeds  of  heroism  and  of  shame  ;  of  man's 
ambition  and  of  woman's  love." 

Cissbury  may  take  its  name  from  Cissa,  son  of 
JElla,  but  on  the  whole  it  does  not  seem  very  likely. 
He  may  have  occupied  it,  but  then  again  he  may 
not ;  pure  supposition  admits  neither  of  proof  nor 
of  disproof.  Not  far  off,  however,  is  a  place  that 
bears  unquestioned  traces  of  Saxon  occupation 
though  in  very  much  later  days.  The  village  of 
Sompting,  as  the  Domesday  form  of  Sultinges  has 
shaped  itself  in  our  own  day,  stands  on  the  slope 
of  the  Downs,  and  looks  over  the  narrow  plain 
from  its  woodlands.  The  church  is  of  unique 
interest.  The  west  tower  is  undoubtedly  a  pre- 
Conquest  example,  though  not  erected  probably 
long  before  1066.  About  a  third  of  the  way  up  is  a 
string-course,  below  which  are  three  square  pilas- 
ters each  side,  none  quite  at  the  corners.  Above  it 
are  square  corner  pilasters  and  round  central  ones, 
each  of  the  latter  with  a  capital  below  the  highest 
stage.  The  long  and  short  work  is  peculiar  in  that 
the  latter  does  not  project  laterally  beyond  the 
former.  The  double  round-headed  lights,  divided 
by  a  mid- wall  baluster  and  single  triangular- 
headed  openings,  are  exactly  what  is  characteristic 


WORTHING  143 

of  Saxon  work  elsewhere,  but  the  great  interest  of 
this  tower,  unique  in  England,  is  the  four  steep 
gables,  from  which  rises  a  spire  in  the  manner 
familiar  in  many  examples  on  the  Rhine.  The 
spire  is  said  to  have  been  lowered  between  1760 
and  1770,  but  it  is  difficult  to  understand  just  how, 
and  P.  M.  Johnston  believes  the  roof  timbers  to  be 
original.  The  arch  into  the  church,  curiously 
placed  as  far  south  as  was  possible,  has  a  round 
inner  order  under  the  flat  soffit  and  caps  that 
bear  some  resemblance  to  Corinthian  ones.  The 
aisleless  nave  and  chancel  with  no  arch  between, 
only  15  feet  wide  but  over  90  feet  long,  seem  to 
have  been  Norman  originally,  though  doubtless 
some  Saxon  masonry  survives;  every  period  ap- 
pears to  have  seen  a  way  to  improve  them,  and  in 
the  east  wall  are  four  aumbries,  two  actually  over 
the  altar,  a  most  unusual  arrangement.  They  may 
have  formed  tabernacles,  but  it  does  not  seem  very 
probable. 

In  1154  the  church  was  given  by  one  Philip  of 
Harcourt,  who  practically  founded  the  preceptory 
at  Shipley  to  the  Knights  Templars.  After  the 
dissolution  of  that  Order  in  the  early  fourteenth 
century  it  passed  to  the  Knights  of  St.  John  of 
Jerusalem.  Not  very  long  after  the  Templars 
received  it  the  curious  transepts  were  added, 
giving  a  most  strange  ground  plan.  The  north 
one  has  two  vaulted  chapels  opening  eastward,  the 
round  pillar  having  scallop  caps,  and  details  being 
of  "Transition"  character.  The  south  transept, 
about  24  feet  square,  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
church,  and  on  a  lower  level  than  the  rest  of  the 
building,  as  the  ground  falls  rapidly  away.  An 
eastward  round  arch,  with  foliage  caps,  opens  into 
a  strange  little  chapel  with  only  a  half-vault,  a 


144  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

tiny  sacristy  squeezed  in  between  it  and  the  south 
wall  of  the  church.  At  present  wide  modern  arches 
give  access  to  these  transepts.  The  original  open- 
ings were  probably  much  smaller,  and  it  may  be 
that  in  these  strange  additions  to  the  church  the 
Templars  desired  to  reproduce  the  curious  little 
chapels  so  characteristic  of  the  churches  that  cover 
the  Holy  Places  of  Palestine.  The  foliage  bosses 
in  the  vaulting  of  the  two  chapels  of  the  north 
transept  have  holes  for  suspending  lamps,  and 
though  now  light  as  day  from  large  windows  of 
later  date,  the  three  little  chapels  when  new  were 
probably  dark  and  mysterious,  hung  with  curtains 
of  Eastern  stuffs. 

North  of  the  tower  is  another  chapel,  now  in 
ruin,  probably  the  contribution  to  the  fabric  made 
by  the  Knights  of  St.  John ;  the  position  of  a 
window  in  the  nave  wall  proves  it  to  have  been  in 
its  present  condition  early  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
The  church  contains  some  old  sculptures  of  interest, 
and  in  the  north  wall  of  the  chancel  is  a  very  late 
monument  of  the  Easter  sepulchre  type.  Mark 
Antony  Lower  discovered  that  its  occupier  is 
Richard  Burre  of  Sowntynge,  whose  will  is  dated 
on  the  3rd  of  August,  19th  year  of  Henry  VIII. 
Though  by  no  means  specially  magnificent,  this 
church  may  perhaps  claim  an  interest  unreached 
by  any  other  in  Sussex.  Its  tower  was  standing 
when  the  Confessor  was  our  king.  Its  chapels 
carry  our  minds  to  the  land  where  our  faith  had 
its  birth. 

Close  by,  at  Sompting  Abbots,  just  before  she 
visited  the  Levant,  lived  for  a  short  time  the 
unfortunate  Queen  Caroline,  idol  of  the  mob,  but 
unappreciated  as  the  royal  consort  of  the  third 
husband  of  Maria  Anne  Fitzherbert. 


WORTHING  145 

Sompting's  associations  are  by  no  means  alto- 
gether with  the  past.  The  village  school  has  become 
extremely  interesting  to  educationalists  from  Miss 
Finlay-Johnson's  method  of  teaching  by  making 
the  children  act  whatever  they  had  to  learn.  If 
they  were  studying  the  past  they  played  the  scenes 
of  history  in  extemporised  costume ;  if  arithmetic, 
they  pretended  to  buy  and  sell ;  if  geography,  some 
represented  towns  and  others  commercial  travellers, 
and  the  latter  must  visit  exactly  those  of  the 
former  suited  to  their  particular  commodities. 
The  local  interest  aroused  was  great,  and  the 
parents  were  caught  by  new  and  admirable  enthu- 
siasms. The  men  acted  Julius  Ccesar,  eventually 
playing  in  Worthing  Theatre  Royal,  and,  to  quote 
Miss  Finlay-Johnson's  own  book,  The  Dramatic 
Method  of  Teaching,  "  The  mothers  also  practised 
the  Morris  dance  and  dramatised  folk-songs  just 
as  the  scholars  in  the  day-school  were  doing.  In 
the  latter  art  they  excelled,  for  they  knew  a  good 
store  of  the  Sussex  folk-songs. 

"  Comical  in  the  extreme  was  their  '  band '  of 
various  instruments,  which  they  managed  to  play 
tunefully.  Really  it  seemed  we  had  reached  the 
ideal  state  of  village  life,  and  had  made  one  or  two 
steps  towards  reintroducing  'Merrie  England.' 
Whether  this  was  a  result  of  the  school  method  I 
leave  others  to  judge.  And  let  no  one  be  afraid 
that  the  result  of  such  teaching  will  be  to  set  the 
whole  community  *  acting  mad.'  I  have  heard  of 
none  of  the  everyday  work  of  the  village  being 
neglected.  But  I  did  observe  there  were  a  few 
more  cheerful  faces  to  be  seen  among  those  who 
took  part  in  the  work/' 


10 


HE  situation  of  Steyning  among  fertile 
fields  near  the  Adur  at  the  edge  of  the 
Weald,  and  under  the  Downs,  is  so  beau- 
tiful and  attractive  that  no  one  would 
guess  how  accidentally  it  was  chosen. 
St.  Cuthman,  who  lived  probably  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, was  wheeling  his  aged  mother  on  a  barrow ; 
for  a  rope  he  had  merely  osiers,  and  he  had  been 
under  the  necessity  of  cursing  some  irreverent 
countrymen  who  jeered  at  his  excellent  and  filial 
arrangements.  It  is  no  light  thing  to  quarrel  with 
a  saint,  and  rain  descended  on  their  hay ;  the  same 
thing,  it  is  said,  happens  in  that  field  every  year 
to  the  present  day.  At  length  the  osiers  snapped, 
the  wheelbarrow  refused  to  proceed,  and  so  the 
saint  stopped  and  built  a  chapel  of  wood,  by  which 
Steyning  was,  in  due  course,  to  grow  up. 

mhelwulf,  the  Bishop-King,  father  of  Alfred 
the  Great,  who  pilgrimaged  to  Rome,  and  possibly 
started  the  payment  of  Peter's  pence,  was  buried 

146 


STEYNING 


147 


in  Cuthman's  Chapel  (858  A.D.),  though  his  body 
was  afterwards  moved  to  Winchester.  By  Edward 
the  Confessor  Steyning  was  granted  to  the  great 
Norman  Abbey  of  Fecamp,  and  by  that  famous" 
house  the  present  church  seems  to  have  been  built. 
It  was  apparently  a  great  cruciform  building,  with 
central  tower,  and  the  oldest  parts  are  the  west 
tower  arch,  the  arches  that  opened  from  nave 
aisles  to  transepts  and  parts  of  the  side  walls. 
These  arches  rest  each  on  three  shafts  on  either 
side,  except  that  on  the  north  some  miscalculation 
has  reduced  the  three  to  one ;  the  caps  are  scal- 
loped or  carved,  and  one  has  a  strange  sort  of  bull. 
In  the  south-east  corner  a  beginning  has  been 


CAPITALS    OF   NAVE    ARCADES,    STEYNING. 

made  to  build  the  wall  of  wide  jointed  ashlar, 
which  was  perhaps  discontinued  from  the  difficulty 
of  getting  stone.  Rather  late  Norman  work  are 
the  magnificent  arcades  and  tall-shafted  clearstory 
above,  very  massive  round  pillars  support  capitals 
and  arches  that  display  rich  Norman  mouldings  of 
various  kinds,  and  the  dog-tooth  also  appears,  a 
very  early  instance  of  its  use.  But  the  chief 
interest  of  this  superb  work  is  the  strong  Saracenic 
influence  it  shows,  besides  the  palm-leaf  ornament, 
which  occurs  elsewhere  in  Sussex  (for  instance,  on 
a  detached  corbel  at  Burpham),  there  is  on  a 
capital  of  the  north  arcade  what  closely  resembles 
a  common  Saracenic  ornament,  usually  called 


148  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

honeycomb  for  want  of  another  name.  It  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  invented  to  comply  with  the 
Moslem  injunction  that  corresponds  with  the 
Second  Commandment.  But  while  the  nave  of 
Steyning  church  slightly  recalls  a  Levantine 
mosque,  it  does  no  more.  It  was  only  a  recollec- 
tion, not  accurate  drawings,  of  Saracenic  forms 
that  the  returning  Crusaders  brought  home,  and 
the  heavy  Norman  style  disdained  to  be  influenced 
in  anything  beyond  a  few  details  by  the  light  and 
airy,  not  to  say  somewhat  rickety,  form  of  build- 
ing that  the  Arabs  loved. 

During  the  fifteenth  century,  at  different  times, 
a  large  south  porch  was  added,  new  windows  were 
inserted  in  the  aisles,  and  the  nave  was  shortened 
to  four  bays.  In  1569  we  learn  from  the  Arch- 
bishop's Visitation  :  "  The  chancel  of  the  church  of 
Steyning,  which  is  like  a  collegiate  church,  is  in 
great  decay,  and  the  parish  and  the  farmer  there, 
Mr.  Pellett,  be  at  great  contention  for  the  same  ; 
but  nothing  is  done,  and  the  church  is  like  to  fall 
to  ruin,  which  is  in  a  great  market  town,  and 
there  is  no  more  but  that  same  there."  Eight 
years  later  it  had  fallen  still  further  into  decay, 
and  it  was  proposed  to  destroy  part  in  order  to 
rebuild  the  rest.  This  was  evidently  done ;  the 
aisles  of  the  chancel  (which  itself  is  modern,  on 
the  site  of  the  central  tower  and  part  of  the  quire) 
are  of  Elizabethan  character,  as  also  is  the  fine 
west  tower  with  great  diagonal  buttresses  and 
flint  and  ashlar  work  in  squares,  an  admirable 
piece  of  work  belonging  to  a  period  but  slightly 
represented  in  English  ecclesiastical  architecture. 
It  is  rather  too  low  for  its  position,  and  this  has 
been  accentuated  by  the  lofty  modern  wooden  roof 
of  the  nave.  The  tower  is  clearly  built  largely  of 


STEYNING  149 

Norman  materials,  and  half-obliterated  zigzag  may 
be  traced  on  several  of  the  stones.  An  inserted 
tablet  bears  date  1684,  but  the  work  to  which  this 
refers  was  probably  on  a  most  modest  scale.  A 
coffin  slab  with  double  cross  incised,  now  in  the 
porch,  is  possibly  of  pre-Conquest  date. 

The  vicarage  contains  some  fine  Renaissance 
carved  panelling  bearing  date  1522,  and  rather 
resembling  some  of  the  work  in  King's  College 
Chapel  at  Cambridge,  with  little  Gothic  feeling. 
Very  many  of  the  houses  in  the  two  old  streets, 
called  Church  and  High,  are  old,  dating  from  the 
sixteenth  century  or  later ;  one  or  two  may  be 
earlier  ;  some  have  been  ref  ronted.  All  the  charm 
that  oak  framing,  flint  and  stone,  thin  brick  and 
Horsham  slabs  can  give  is  there.  The  old  Brother- 
hood Hall,  with  carved  barge  boards  to  its  gables, 
was  acquired  by  an  alderman  of  Chichester,  one 
William  Holland,  who  in  1614  founded  a  grammar 
school  there  for  the  benefit  of  his  native  place, 
and  the  institution  is  flourishing  still.  One  little 
dwelling  is  inscribed  "This  is  Sr  Harry  Gough's 
House,  1771."  The  Goughs  were  formerly  a  family 
of  considerable  local  influence,  and  prominent  in 
the  petty  politics  of  Bramber.  Over  the  fire-engine 
station  in  High  Street  is  a  picturesque  old  turret 
with  a  clock. 

Steyning  was  a  Domesday  burg  ;  once  she  was  a 
flourishing  port  and  possessed  a  mint;  now  she 
rests  on  her  past  and  leads  her  own  life  in  peace : 
the  hustle  of  this  restless  age  is  not  for  her.  Bad 
indeed  for  the  world  if  all  places  within  it  sought 
to  follow  London  and  New  York! 

On  a  north  projecting  spur  of  the  Downs,  a  little 
west  of  Steyning,  is  the  chief  landmark  of  Sussex : 
Chanctonbury  Ring,  Chenkbury  Camden  calls  it. 


150  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

The  Ring  is  an  ancient  camp  more  or  less  oval  in 
shape,  protected  by  a  couple  of  outworks.  The 
fosse  and  agger  are  by  no  means  particularly 
impressive,  but  the  spot  is  a  landmark  over  a 
vast  extent  of  the  Weald  from  the  trees,  which 
are  mostly  beeches,  that  were  planted  originally 
about  1760-1770  by  Charles  Goring,  to  whose 
grandson  the  place  now  belongs.  Towards  the 
end  of  his  long  life  he  wrote  a  poem,  which 
begins — 

"How  oft  around  thy  Ring,  sweet  Hill, 

A  boy  I  used  to  play, 
And  form  my  plans  to  plant  thy  top 
On  some  auspicious  day." 

The  height  is  but  814  feet,  but  at  times  white 
clouds  drive  up  from  the  sea  and  smother  the 
hill-top  in  mists  while  all  is  clear  in  the  Weald 
below.  Excavations  carried  out  in  1909  (described 
in  S.A.C.  by  G.  S.  Mitchell)  disclosed  Roman  build- 
ings within  the  area,  the  chief  of  them  apparently 
a  small  temple  or  mountain  shrine,  which  must 
have  been  visible  far  and  wide.  Mingled  with 
Roman  money,  from  Nero  to  Gratian,  were  three 
Georgian  halfpennies,  coins  which  can  penetrate 
any  barrier  and  which  grace  every  excavation. 
The  site  of  the  digging  is  replanted,  but  the 
ground  is  thickly  strewed  with  fragments  of 
Roman  brick,  mortar,  tiles,  and  oyster  -  shells. 
Hence  one  looks  down  on  field  upon  field  and 
wood  upon  wood  stretching  away  into  the  distance 
over  the  rolling  Weald.  Just  beneath  is  Wiston 
Park,  once  the  home  of  the  far- travelled  Shirley s, 
whose  father  built  the  E-shaped  Elizabethan  house 
and  died  in  1613.  Its  character  has  been  altered 
by  the  addition  of  classic  cornices  with  a  large 


STEYNING  151 

statue  over  the  porch.  Close  by  is  the  little 
church,  where  sleep  several  of  the  younger  branch 
of  the  house  of  De  Braose,  on  the  dying  out  of 
which  the  Shirleys  entered  into  the  heritage,  and 
eventually  the  place  passed  to  the  Gorings  through 
the  Roundhead  Faggs.  West  of  Chanctonbury  the 
Downs  are  largely  wooded  with  trees  that  have 
mostly  been  planted  within  the  last  few  centuries  : 
to  the  east  they  are  in  most  parts  bare,  presenting 
smooth  rolling  outlines  covered  with  soft,  springy 
turf. 

Close  to  Steyning  rises  from  the  old  tidal  flats, 
green  meadows  now,  a  low  but  isolated  hill : 
Brymmburh  the  Saxons  called  it.  Earl  Guerd 
held  it  before  1066;  as  Bramber  we  know  it 
to-day,  and  it  gives  its  name  to  the  Rape.  By 
the  Conqueror  it  was  assigned  to  William  of 
Braose,  and  to  him  are  probably  due  the  earth- 
works we  see  there  at  present,  though  it  is  more 
than  likely  that  to  some  extent  he  made  use  of 
older  ones.  In  the  centre  he  raised  a  mound,  on 
which  was  probably  the  keep,  unusually  placed  in 
not  being  directly  in  touch  with  the  outer  world. 
Surrounding  it  is  a  bailey,  roughly  oblong,  about 
560  feet  by  280  feet,  the  corners  rounded  except 
north-east ;  this  is  defended  by  a  deep,  dry  moat 
cut,  not  without,  but  into  the  hill  itself,  leaving  an 
outer  lip  all  round  much  less  defined  along  the 
east  side  than  elsewhere.  About  a  generation 
later  probably  are  the  flint  fragments  of  the 
curtain  wall  along  the  inner  edge  of  the  moat, 
and  the  ruins  of  a  great  tower,  like  a  small  keep, 
that  stood  near  the  south-east  corner.  This  con- 
sists chiefly  of  one  high  wall,  a  conspicuous  land- 
mark round,  roughly  built  of  flint  with  a  little 
stone,  displaying  a  Norman  window,  part  of  a 


152  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

passage  in  its  seven-foot  thickness  of  masonry,  and 
holes  for  the  beams  of  the  floors.  The  scantiness 
of  the  ruins  is  mainly  due  to  the  operations  of  the 
great  Civil  War. 

On  the  outer  lip,  and  so  practically  outside  the 
defences,  stands  the  once  collegiate  church  of  St. 
Nicholas,  founded  by  William  of  Braose  in  1073 ; 
a  cruciform  building  then,  now  only  tower  and 
aisleless  nave  survive,  and  the  former  does  duty 
as  chancel.  According  to  the  Gentleman's  Magazine 
(1805)  it  was  rebuilt  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  this  does  not  seem  to  have  gone  very 
far.  The  north,  south,  and  east  tower-arches  are 
walled  up,  the  west  one  is  plain  except  for  jamb 
shafts,  that  on  the  south  has  a  remarkable  capital 
reminding  one  of  the  sketches  children  of  twelve 
sometimes  make  on  their  slates.  Queer  beasts 
sprawl  about,  two  animals  have  birds  in  their 
mouths,  and  one  of  them  is  fitted  with  what 
would  seem  to  be  a  most  inconveniently  long  tail. 
The  large  south  door  has  billet  moulding ;  nearly 
all  the  other  details  belong  to  a  later  age. 

Nine  of  the  Braose  house  held  Bramber,  and  one 
of  them  fell  foul  of  the  blackguard  King  John, 
whose  effigy  in  Worcester  Cathedral  has  been 
gilded  but  whose  memory  not  even  the  crankiest 
of  historians  has  essayed  to  whitewash.  By 
marriage  it  passed  to  the  Mowbrays  (1315) ;  ten 
of  them  held  it,  of  whom  Thomas  was  in  1397 
created  Duke  of  Norfolk.  When  the  last  of  them 
died  in  1476  Bramber  fell  to  their  relatives  the 
Howards,  to  whom  it  still  belongs. 

The  tidal  flats  doubtless  formed  natural  dry 
docks  for  many  a  vessel  of  old.  We  learn  from 
a  record  of  1103,  narrating  an  agreement  between 
the  Abbot  of  Fecamp  and  De  Braose,  Lord  of 


STEYNING  153 

Bramber,  that  in  the  days  of  the  Conf essor  ships 
went  up  to  the  Portus  S.  Cuthmanni  (near  Stey- 
ning),  but  that  a  bridge  lately  erected  at  Bramber 
prevented  this  (Round,  Feudal  England,  p.  319). 
It  seems  altogether  probable  that  the  bridge  was 
not  the  only  impediment  to  navigation,  since  about 
the  same  time  shingle  bars  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  moved  the  seaport  from  the  Old  Shoreham 
to  the  New.  In  1839  were  discovered  in  the 
marshes  600  feet  west  of  the  present  course  of  the 
river  remains  of  a  fine  four-arch  bridge  which 
seemed  to  be  of  Roman  origin.  Close  by  this 
bridge  was  a  chapel  dedicated  to  St.  Peter  de 
Vetere  Ponte,  and  this  would  seem  to  confirm 
that  the  structure  was  Roman  once.  If  so,  it  was 
apparently  allowed  to  become  ruinous,  and  in  the 
interests  of  shipping  was  never  rebuilt  until  the 
river  was  becoming  less  navigable. 

In  days  gone  by  the  nation,  or  rather  its  Par- 
liament, profited  by  the  wisdom  of  no  less  than 
twenty-eight  members  from  Sussex ;  now  it  has 
to  get  along  with  only  nine.  Of  the  twenty-eight, 
two  were  knights  of  the  shire,  two  were  citizens 
of  Chichester,  eighteen  were  burgesses  (two  each 
from  Steyning,  Bramber,  Shoreham,  Arundel,  East 
Grinstead,  Horsham,  Seaford,  Lewes,  and  Mid- 
hurst),  six  were  barons  from  the  two  Ancient 
Towns  (Rye  and  Winchelsea)  and  the  Premier 
Cinque  Port  (Hastings).  Bramber  was  not  always 
famed  for  clean  politics.  De  Foe  tells  us  "The 
chief  House  in  the  Town,  when  I  was  there,  was 
a  Tavern,  where,  as  I  was  told,  the  Vintner,  or 
Ale-house-Keeper  rather,  for  he  hardly  deserv'd 
the  Name  of  a  Vintner,  boasted  that,  upon  an 
Election,  just  then  over,  he  had  made  300Z.  of  one 
Pipe  of  Canary. 


154  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

"  This  is  not  the  only  Town  in  this  County  where 
the  Elections  have  been  so  scandalously  mercenary, 
that  it  has  been  said,  there  was  in  one  King's  Reign 
more  Money  spent  at  Elections  than  all  the  Lands 
in  the  Parishes  were  worth  at  Twenty  Years 
Purchase." 

Rotten  boroughs  sometimes  returned  good  men. 
The  famed  William  Wilberforce  was  once  driving 
through  Bramber,  and,  hearing  its  name,  he 
thought  it  sounded  strangely  familiar,  and  it 
suddenly  dawned  upon  him  it  was  the  place  whose 
opinions  he  represented  in  Parliament.  There 
were  carpet-baggers  in  the  land  before  America 
had  invented  the  appropriate  description. 

The  chief  industry  of  Bramber  to-day  is  teaing 
wayfarers  and  school-children,  while  for  their 
further  delectation  it  has  a  locally  famous  Museum, 
where  stuffed  animals  follow  the  avocations  of 
man. 

Just  over  the  tidal  river,  now  a  narrow  stream, 
is  Seeding,  called  Upper  to  distinguish  it  from 
Lower,  which  stands  high  amid  the  forests  of  the 
Weald.  The  church  has  some  plain  Early  English 
work,  including  the  tower  and  pilaster  buttresses 
to  support  the  north  wall  of  the  nave.  The  chancel 
has  a  singularly  beautiful  little  window,  with 
moulded  round  arches  and  clustered  responds  (date 
about  1180),  obviously  moved  thither  from  else- 
where. It  probably  belonged  to  the  Benedictine 
Priory  of  Sele  hard  by,  a  house  dependent  on  the 
Abbey  of  St.  Florent,  Saumur,  which  was  never 
very  famed  for  good  order,  and  which,  after  being 
reduced  to  a  single  monk,  died  of  inanition,  and 
in  the  late  fifteenth  century  its  buildings  were 
assigned  to  the  Carmelite  Friars  of  Shoreham, 
washed  out  of  their  own  abode  by  the  sea. 


STEYNING  155 

In  the  water  gap  on  the  way  to  the  channel, 
both  on  its  western  side,  are  two  tiny  villages, 
places  of  importance  when  ships  came  up,  little 
beyond  churches  and  farms  to-day.  Their  names 
are  St.  Botolph's  and  Coombes.  The  former  con- 
sists of  a  lonely  little  church  close  to  a  farmyard ; 
it  may  easily  be  distinguished  from  the  great  Hub 
of  the  Universe,  but  the  names  mean  exactly  the 
same,  for  Boston  is  Botolph's  Town.  This  Botolph, 
or  Botulph,  was  a  hermit  abbot  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tury, and,  like  other  holy  men,  was  sadly  plagued 
by  devils.  A  doubting  saint  was  once  allowed, 
for  the  confirmation  of  his  faith,  to  see  all  evil 
spirits  for  the  space  of  a  day,  and,  hastening  to  a 
city  world-famed  for  its  evil  life,  he  passed  the  cell 
of  a  very  holy  hermit.  To  his  horror,  he  saw  devils 
in  hundreds  sitting  round  or  flying  in  the  air  above ; 
at  the  city  only  one  sleepy  imp.  He  was  amazed, 
but  was  told  that  he  at  whose  command  the  powers 
of  evil  are  best  knows  how  his  forces  should  be 
disposed.  So  the  holy  Botolph  suffered ;  he  is 
claimed  as  a  Benedictine  pioneer  in  England. 
There  are  about  fifty  churches  dedicated  to  him, 
most  of  them  in  East  Anglia,  where  he  founded  a 
monastery,  not  identified  with  any  certainty.  The 
little  church  here  has  early  Norman  features,  par- 
ticularly the  chancel  arch,  with  curious  corbels 
covered  with  a  sort  of  network.  In  the  thirteenth 
century  an  aisle  was  added  on  the  north,  but  the 
three  arches  that  once  opened  into  it  are  now 
walled  up.  The  squat  tower  and  two  low  side 
windows  are  of  rather  later  date. 

On  the  Down  side,  with  a  fine  old  timber  and 
plaster  manor-house  among  farm  buildings  and 
trees,  rests  the  little  village  of  Coombes.  The  tiny 
Norman  church  has  no  outside  division  in  its 


156  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

stone  slab-covered  roof,  but  within  a  plain  arch 
connects  the  chancel  with  the  nave  ;  each  of  them 
has  a  low  side  window,  and  that  of  the  chancel  is 
remarkable— a  round  opening  with  iron  bars  under 
a  Perpendicular  window.  The  timber-framed  porch 
is  of  Tudor  times,  and  the  woodwork  of  the  inner 
door  has  a  little  grating  with  sliding  shutter  as  if 
the  person  who  opened  it  from  within  wished  to 
see  whom  he  admitted. 

Neither  the  railway  nor  the  huge  Sussex  Port- 
land Cement  Company's  Works  across  the  river 
seriously  interfere  with  the  quiet  peace  of  these 
old-world  villages,  though  they  do  somewhat  mar 
their  outlook.  The  main  road  to  Steyning  from 
the  sea  passes  the  cement  works,  and  issuing  from 
the  lane  that  leads  past  the  silent,  lonely  villages 
on  to  the  Brighton  road  is  like  going  into  another 
age  in  which  the  prophecy  of  Nahum  is  most  liter- 
ally fulfilled :  "  The  chariots  shall  rage  in  the 
streets,  they  shall  justle  one  against  another  in 
the  broad  ways :  they  shall  seem  like  torches,  they 
shall  run  like  the  lightnings." 

High  on  the  Downs  above  this  spot  stands  Lanc- 
ing College,  one  of  the  Woodard  schools.  Its 
buildings,  mostly  of  flint,  begun  in  1854,  are  crushed 
into  almost  utter  insignificance  by  the  enormous 
chapel,  a  vast  structure  of  ten  bays  with  five-sided 
apse  (two  sides  straight),  vaulted  throughout  with 
shafts,  illuminated  principally  by  great  four-light 
windows  in  the  clearstory  and  with  little  double 
trefoil  arcades  in  each  bay  of  the  triforium  over 
the  lancet  arches  that  open  to  the  narrow  aisles. 
All  the  windows  have  shafts,  all  capitals  through- 
out are  moulded.  The  bases  of  the  pillars  rise 
with  the  steps  to  the  altar.  Its  immense  height 
and  purity  of  detail  make  this  building  as  impres- 


STEYNING  157 

sive  within  as  any  modern  church  in  the  world, 
though  there  is  something  humiliating  in  the 
confession  that  our  age  can  do  no  better  than  copy 
the  mode  of  building  that  really  lived  in  the 
thirteenth  century.  The  slope  of  the  Downs  per- 
mits the  crypt  to  be  above  ground-level  on  the  east. 
The  exterior  is  not  very  beautiful  in  its  present 
form,  without  ante-chapel  or  any  one  of  the  three 
spires  to  be ;  but  it  is  much  better  close  up  than 
when  seen  from  far.  A  great  French  church  sits 
somewhat  uneasily  upon  our  Sussex  Downs.  The 
college  is  extremely  prosperous,  as  it  deserves  to  be. 
The  old  village  of  Lancing,  which  it  has  been 
suggested  may  possibly  derive  its  name  from 
Wlencing,  son  of  -ZElla,  remains  fairly  as  it  was ; 
though,  largely  from  the  new  railway  works,  a 
great  cluster  of  brick  and  slate  has  grown  up 
further  south.  The  church  has  squat  central 
tower  and  aisles  without  transepts.  Parts  are 
Norman,  a  transitional  Norman-Early  English 
doorway  has  beautiful  foliage  caps ;  the  arcades 
are  late  in  the  thirteenth  century.  In  the  chancel 
is  a  cinquefoiled  sepulchral  recess  whose  hood 
mould  ends  in  a  large  cross.  Two  lancets  continue 
down  to  form  low  side  windows,  and  in  the  sill  of 
a  later  window  are  uncanopied  sedilia.  The  Gentle- 
mans  Magazine,  1828,  tells  us  :  "  The  Roman  build- 
ing recently  discovered  on  Lancing  Down,  Sussex, 
exhibits  a  gallery  of  40  feet  square,  which  has  an 
apartment  in  the  centre  16  feet  square,  with  a 
tessellated  pavement.  It  is  supposed  to  be  the 
remains  of  a  Roman  temple,  as  various  circum- 
stances combine  to  confirm.  Divers  coins,  ancient 
British,  Roman,  and  Saxon,  all  in  a  state  of  excel- 
lent preservation,  besides  bracelets,  rings,  combs, 
beads,  styles,  fibulae,  &c.,  were  found  in  the  said 


158  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

apartment,  mingled  with  the  ashes  of  the  dead." 
The  building  was  really  a  villa;  the  account  is 
superficial  and  rather  careless.  If  Saxon  objects 
were  really  found,  it  is  of  unusual  interest,  as 
we  have  almost  no  evidence  of  Roman  villas 
having  been  occupied  by  our  invading  forefathers, 
and  yet  it  seems  that  in  some  cases  they  must  have 
utilised  them.  Sussex  has  many  examples  of 
Roman  building  materials  used  in  churches  of 
early  date. 


IX.   Shoreham 


N  extremely  picturesque  and  often- 
sketched  object  is  Old  Shoreham 
Bridge,  a  long  wooden  structure  built 
by  Act  of  Parliament  in  1781-2.  The 
cost  was  £5,000,  and  this  was  raised  by  subscrip- 
tion, the  contributors  receiving  annuities  and  the 
income  after  their  deaths  being  granted  to  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk.  The  bridge  is  now  the  property 
of  the  London,  Brighton,  and  South-Coast  Railway, 
whose  line  runs  close  to  its  eastern  end.  In  the 
reedy  ditches  of  the  flat  country  to  the  west,  where 
the  tide  flows  and  ebbs,  A.  E.  Knox  tells  us  the 
reed  warbler  is  fond  of  building  its  beautiful  nest. 
On  the  road  here  is  a  public-house  called  the  Sussex 
Pad  Inn,  but  the  name  is  far  more  picturesque 
than  the  hostelry,  which  was  rebuilt  after  a  fire. 

Just  east  of  the  bridge  is  Old  Shoreham,  a  great 
seaport  once,  now  a  mere  village  with  a  very  in- 
teresting cruciform  church.  The  nave  walls  are 
partly  Saxon,  displaying  a  very  rude  round-arched 
doorway  and  rough  long  and  short  work  ;  the  west 
part  is  narrower  than  the  rest  on  the  north  side,  in 

159 


160  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

which  P.  M.  Johnston  sees  the  remains  of  a  portions. 
The  rest  of  the  nave  with  transepts  and  tower  are 
Norman;  the  central  arches  rest  on  shafts  with 
scallop  caps  and  have  ornate  mouldings,  especially 
zigzag.  In  the  nave  is  a  remarkable  rood  beam 
with  double  billet  moulding.  The  tower  has  three 
arches  aside,  and  the  central  one  encloses  a  double 
window.  The  original  Norman  church  probably 
had  three  eastern  apses ;  the  transept  arch  on  the 
north  opens  into  a  vestry  on  part  of  the  site  of  a 
Decorated  chapel,  that  on  the  south  can  be  clearly 
traced.  The  present  chancel  is  a  fine  Decorated 
example  with  net  tracery  windows ;  dog-tooth  is 
carved  on  a  tie  beam,  which  is  extremely  unusual. 
The  screen  has  octagonal  shafts,  trefoil  arches  and 
battlements  above ;  it  can  never  have  supported  a 
loft.  It  is  a  late  thirteenth-century  piece  of  work, 
and  the  most  interesting  thing  about  it  is  perhaps 
the  extremely  clumsy  way  in  which  so  beautiful 
an  ornament  was  connected  with  the  Norman 
responds. 

Here  or  hereabouts  was  the  Roman  Portus 
Adurni.  Hilaire  Belloc  places  it  at  Old  Shoreham 
itself,  and  declines  to  believe  the  name  Adur  for 
this  river  to  date  only  from  the  seventeenth 
century,  though  of  course  admitting  that  the 
stream  has  borne  many  alternative  designations. 
Selden's  well-known  note  to  Drayton's  Polyolbion 
is :  "  This  Riuer  that  here  falls  into  the  Ocean  might 
well  bee  vnderstood  in  that  Port  of  Adur,  about 
this  coast,  the  reliques  whereof,  learned  Camden 
takes  to  be  Edington,  or  Adrington,  a  little  from 
Shoreham.  And  the  Author  here  so  calls  it  Adur." 
Camden  cautiously  avoids  giving  the  river  any 
name  at  all;  his  remark  as  to  Portus  Adurni,  to 
which  Selden  refers,  is  "The  name  still  almost 


SHOREHAM  161 

intire,  and  the  adjoining  huts  called  Portslade,  or 
the  way  to  the  port,  induce  me  to  place  it  at  the 
small  village  of  Ederington,"  now  Aldrington.  As 
to  the  name  of  the  river  Holinshed  simply  refers  to 
"  the  Sore,  which  notwithstanding  I  find  to  be 
called  Brember  water,  in  the  ancient  map  of 
Marton  colledge  in  Oxford." 

A  Roman  road  from  London  to  this  coast  can  be 
traced  over  Selsfield  and  St.  John's  Commons  (and 
elsewhere) ;  it  probably  reached  the  Channel  not 
very  far  from  Portslade,  and  here  it  probably 
branched,  the  route  that  led  to  Portus  Adurni  may 
possibly  have  given  Portslade  its  name.  If  the 
port  were  at  Shoreham  it  might  have  been  ex- 
pected that  the  road  would  be  more  direct,  but,  as 
Hilaire  Belloc  has  pointed  out,  it  was  necessary  to 
avoid  the  marshes,  and  this  making  the  Adur 
valley  impossible  the  next  practicable  route  over 
the  Downs  eastward  may  have  been  selected. 

The  vagaries  of  the  river  are  most  difficult  to 
trace ;  in  early  days  it  formed  a  long  tidal  fjord 
extending  far  into  the  Weald,  and  perhaps  once 
more  or  less  navigable  up  to  the  site  of  Henfield. 
Gradually  the  eastward  drift  began  silting  up  the 
mouth  and  forming  a  long  bar  of  shingle  between 
the  river  and  the  sea ;  at  one  time  the  mouth  was 
evidently  as  far  east  as  Brighton,  but  probably  the 
water  permeated  a  good  deal  through  the  beach 
without  forming  a  well-defined  and  navigable 
entrance.  Dr.  Harrison,  of  Hove,  has  devoted 
much  attention  to  the  subject,  but  he  is  far  too 
careful  and  prudent  a  man  to  supply  the  particulars 
we  are  most  in  need  of — the  precise  dates  of  the 
successive  mouths.  While  the  site  of  Portus 
Adurni  cannot  be  certainly  fixed,  the  evidence  of 
the  river's  mouths  would  seem  to  favour  Shoreham. 

11 


162  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

About  1100  (see  p.  152)  the  shingle  changed  the 
mediaeval  port  from  Old  to  New  Shoreham.  An 
interesting  chart  of  later  developments  is  given  in 
H.  Cheal's  Ships  and  Mariners  of  Shoreham.  In 
1760  the  present  entrance  to  the  river  and  harbour, 
opposite  Kingston,  was  made.  The  work  was 
badly  done  and  the  sea  washed  it  away,  with  the 
result  that  three  unsatisfactory  later  openings 
were  successively  used,  each  a  little  farther  east 
than  the  last.  In  1816  the  existing  harbour  mouth 
was  restored,  and  in  1848  the  lighthouse  to  guide 
vessels  in  was  provided.  The  lagoon  on  the  site  of 
the  old  estuary  farther  east  was  gradually  trans- 
formed into  the  docks,  with  busy  wharves  that  we 
see  to-day.  Despite  its  venerable  antiquity  the 
port  has  little  of  the  picturesque  ;  small  vessels  are 
built,  a  good  deal  of  repairing  is  undertaken,  the 
Brighton  excursion  steamers  make  it  their  home. 
Here,  in  1889,  the  petroleum-laden  sailing-ship 
Vandalia,  of  St.  John,  New  Brunswick,  was  tem- 
porarily repaired  after  having  run  aground  at 
Hove,  badly  damaged  by  collision  with  the  s.s. 
Duke  of  Buccleuch,  which  was  never  heard  of 
again.  Only  a  dog  was  on  board,  the  crew  having 
landed  in  a  boat,  but  the  Vandalia  provided  very 
oily  smells  and  a  great  deal  of  amusement  for  the 
Brighton  public  that  lasted  several  weeks. 

At  Shoreham  landed  John  in  1199,  when  he 
came  to  be  our  king  on  Richard  Coeur-de-Lion's 
death  ;  from  the  same  place  sailed  Charles  II.  in 
1651  after  fatal  Worcester,  when  for  a  space  he 
ceased  to  wear  a  crown  (p.  183).  By  John  it  was 
made  a  free  port,  but  by  Edward  I.  that  privilege 
was  taken  away.  In  1295  it  became  a  borough 
with  a  seal  representing  a  ship.  When,  in  1346, 
Edward  III.  demanded  ships  for  his  French  expedi- 


SHOREHAM  163 

tion  that  so  prospered  at  Crecy  and  Calais,  Shore- 
ham  contributed  no  less  than  twenty-six,  more  than 
London,  or  in  fact  than  any  other  port  but  Fowey, 
Yarmouth,  Dartmouth,  and  Plymouth,  The  me- 
diaeval building  in  High  Street,  locally  called  the 
Marlipins,  of  chequered  squares  in  flint  and  stone, 
was  probably  connected  with  the  business  of  the 
port. 

But  decline  soon  set  in,  proceeded  far  and  con- 
tinued long  ;  Camden  pessimistically  tells  us  : 
"Somewhat  lower  upon  the  shore  appeareth 
Shoreham,  in  times  past  Scoreham,  which  by  little 
and  little  fell  to  be  but  a  village,  at  this  day  called 
Old  Shoreham,  and  gave  increase  to  another  towne 
of  the  same  name,  whereof  the  greater  part,  also 
being  drowned  and  made  even  with  the  sea,  is  no 
more  to  be  seene  ;  and  the  commodiousnesse  of  the 
haven,  by  reason  of  bankes  and  barres  of  sand  cast 
up  at  the  river's  mouth,  quite  gone ;  whereas,  in 
foregoing  times,  it  was  wont  to  carrie  ships  with 
full  saile  as  far  as  to  Brember,  which  is  a  good 
way  from  the  sea." 

However,  a  little  more  than  a  century  later  John 
Owen  in  1720,  and  De  Foe  in  1724,  have  a  much 
brighter  picture  to  portray.  Owen  says,  "  This 
town  is  Populous,  and  well  built,  having  a  very 
good  Harbor  for  Vessels  of  considerable  Burthen. 
It  has  a  great  many  able  Shipwrights  who  build 
Ships  here  both  for  the  service  of  ye  Navy  and 
Merchants.  The  Parish  Chu,  which  was  formerly 
Collegiate,*  has  lately  been  repaired,  and  greatly 
beautified  by  the  voluntary  contributions,  and  at 
the  expence  of  the  Inhabitants  to  their  great 
credit.  And  it  is  observed  that  their  is  never  a 

*  An  error,  very  natural  from  the  magnificence  of  the 
building. 


THE  SUSSEX   COAST 

Beggar  in  the  Town,  nor  any  Person  that  receives 
Alms." 

De  Foe  says :  "  From  hence,  still  keeping  the 
coast  close  on  the  left,  we  came  to  Shoreham,  a 
sea-faring  town,  and  chiefly  inhabited  by  ship- 
carpenters,  ship-chandlers,  and  all  the  several 
trades  depending  upon  the  building  and  fitting  up 
of  ships,  which  is  their  chief  business ;  and  they 
are  famed  for  neat  building  and  for  building  good 
sea-boats ;  that  is  to  say,  ships  that  are  wholesome 
in  the  sea  and  good  sailers  ;  but  for  strong  build- 
ing they  do  not  come  up  to  Yarmouth,  Ipswich, 
and  the  North.  The  builders  of  ships  seemed  to 
plant  here  chiefly  because  of  the  exceeding 
quantity  and  cheapness  of  timber  in  the  country 
behind  them  ;  being  the  same  wooded  country  I 
mentioned  above,  which  still  continues  through 
this  county  and  the  next  also.  The  river  this 
town  stands  upon,  though  not  navigable  for  large 
vessels,  yet  serves  them  to  bring  down  this  large 
timber  in  floats  from  Bramber,  Stenning,  and  the 
country  adjacent,  which  is,  as  it  were,  all  covered 
with  timber." 

Not  long  after  the  settlement  of  New  Shoreham 
one  of  the  great  house  of  Braose  founded  the 
Church  of  St.  Mary  of  the  Harbour,  whose  tower 
dominates  the  town  and  which  is  rivalled  in 
Sussex  by  buildings  of  a  purely  parochial  character 
only  in  Rye.  It  was  originally  a  Norman  building, 
erected  during  the  first  quarter  of  the  twelfth 
century,  with  aisled  nave  of  five  bays  having 
round  pillars  and  single  windows  in  the  clear- 
story, central  tower,  transepts  with  windows  on 
two  levels,  and  in  all  probability  there  were  three 
eastern  apses,  whose  gable  marks  can  still  be  seen 
against  the  walls  of  transepts  and  tower.  The 


SHOREHAM  165 

central  arches  rest  on  responds,  whose  shafts  have 
some  variety  of  caps  ;  it  is  remarkable  that  the 
transept  arches  are  more  ornate  than  that  of  the 
chancel,  and  that  the  nave  arch  is  .much  higher 
and  more  striking  than  any  of  the  rest.  The  nave 
is  in  ruin  save  for  one  bay  without  its  aisles,  which 
forms  a  sort  of  vestibule,  a  state  of  affairs  for, 
which  we  are  probably  indebted  to  one  of  the 
numerous  raids  of  the  French.  We  dare  not 
characterise  their  action  as  we  might  wish,  seeing 
that  in  this  case  the  tu  quoque  retort  would  have 
far  more  than  usual  force.  The  original  low 
tower  with  double  openings  under  round  arches 
was  given  an  upper  stage  with  triple  openings, 
round-topped  and  divided  like  those  below  by 
shafts,  but  under  lancet  arches,  during  the  same 
century  in  which  the  church  was  built.  Towards 
the  end  of  that  period,  say  about  1180,  was  begun 
a  new  chancel  with  aisles,  extending  for  five  bays, 
a  magnificent  piece  of  work  that  would  seem  to 
have  taken  longer  than  the  Temple  to  build  and 
to  have  had  its  plan  continually  changed.  Unlike 
any  other  part  of  the  church  it  is  vaulted  through- 
out, and  it  is  indeed  remarkable  for  variety.  On 
the  north  the  pillars  are  alternately  octagonal  and 
round,  their  caps  and  arches  having  stiff  foliage  as 
well  as  deep-cut  mouldings  ;  the  clustered  vaulting- 
shafts  rise  from  corbels  round  whose  abaci  the 
string-course  under  the  triforium  bends.  On  the 
south  are  complicated  clustered  pillars  with  foliage 
caps  and  deep-moulded  arches,  and  vaulting-shafts 
rising  from  the  ground.  The  triforium  is  treated 
in  several  different  ways  on  the  north,  with  a 
varied  use  of  shafts  and  the  hook  corbels  for 
which  the  whole  work  is  remarkable ;  on  the  south 
there  are  single  arches.  The  clearstory  each  side 


166  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

has  lancets  above  the  springing  of  the  vault. 
Three  great  lancets  high  up,  the  triforium  string 
continued  below  them,  let  in  the  light  of  the  rising 
sun. 

The  aisles  have  wide  semi-circular  arcading 
against  their  walls,  and  their  arches  pierced 
through  the  transept  walls  have  dog-tooth  in 
their  outer  mouldings.  The  exterior  is  very  much 
plainer,  and  though  each  bay  is  vaulted  separately 
there  are  but  two  flying  buttresses  aside,  these  are 
supported  by  most  ample  abutments  and  weighted 
by  square  pinnacles.  There  are  several  scratched 
crosses  of  varying  design  on  the  pillars  of  the 
north  arcade. 

Shoreham,  like  Bramber,  was  once  noted  for  its 
corrupt  politics  and  for  the  scandals  of  the  so- 
called  Christian  club.  In  1832  the  Duke  of  Norfolk 
public  spiritedly  built  the  fine  Suspension  Bridge 
over  the  river.  One  tower  is  surmounted  by  a 
horse  eating  a  sprig  of  oak,  the  other  by  a  lion, 
statant,  guardant,  tail  extended  and  pointing  most 
impressively  to  the  north  ;  these  are  two  of  the 
ducal  crests.  Though  it  is  still  private  property, 
any  one  may  cross  on  payment  of  appropriate 
tolls.  It  gives  direct  and  rapid  access  to  Worthing 
by  an  excellent  road  through  the  Bungalow  Town 
south  of  Lancing  that  looks  straight  out  to  sea. 

Among  the  principal  industries  of  this  district, 
or  for  that  matter  of  Sussex  as  a  whole,  in  bygone 
days  was  smuggling,  an  occupation  as  old  as 
tariffs  and  much  older  than  the  name,  which  is 
derived  from  Tarifa,  whence  the  Moors  of  Spain 
used  to  collect  from  those  who  navigated  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar  the  payments  which  they 
considered  were  their  due.  It  is  claimed  that  the 
smuggling  vessels  provided  a  much  better  nursery 


SHOREHAM  167 

for  the  daring  seamen  that  won  our  Empire  than 
the  far  less  exhilarating  sport  of  sea-fishing. 
Smuggling  was  popular;  Government  officials, 
squires,  parsons,  people,  ghosts  all  were  at  times 
in  league  to  spirit  goods  from  the  coast  into  the 
interior  :  caves,  cellars,  old  houses, — and  haunted 
ones  preferred — churches  and  graves  formed  con- 
venient places  to  store  the  commodities  that 
travelled  underground.  The  sport  was  extremely 
lucrative,  it  was  as  exciting  and  frequently  as 
dangerous  as  real  war.  A  smuggler  shot  at  sea 
by  a  revenue  officer,  both  of  them  professionally 
engaged  at  the  time,  has  the  following  mag- 
nanimous epitaph  in  the  churchyard  of  All  Saints, 
Hastings.  The  date  is  1783,  his  age  was  but 
twenty-four  years  : — 

"May  it  be  known,  tho'  I  am  clay, 
A  base  man  took  my  life  away ; 
But  freely  him  I  do  forgive 
And  hope  in  heaven  we  shall  live." 

The  Sussex  Pad  Inn  was  a  great  local  resort  of 
those  who  struggled  so  heroically  to  minimise  the 
ill-effects  of  the  tariff,  for  the  proximity  of  Sussex 
to  the  Continent  and  its  remoteness  from  the  rest 
of  England  on  account  of  the  wretched  roads  of 
the  Weald  made  our  county  almost  ideal  for  the 
smugglers.  Much  has  been  written  by  Horace 
Walpole,  by  Gibbon,  and  by  many  others  about 
the  villainous  character  of  the  Sussex  roads,  some 
of  the  old  stories  have  crossed  the  Atlantic  and 
returned  to  us  as  "Yankee  yarns,"  but  perhaps 
the  most  effective  piece  of  writing  on  this  subject 
comes  from  the  pen  of  De  Foe,  when  he  is  speak- 
ing of  the  Wealden  trees  in  process  of  transforma- 
tion into  men  of  war :  "  Sometimes  I  have  seen 


168  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

one  Tree  on  a  Carriage,  which  they  call  there  a 
Tug,  drawn  by  Two-and-twenty  oxen;  and  even 
then  'tis  carry 'd  so  little  a  Way,  and  then  thrown 
down,  and  left  for  other  Tugs  to  take  up  and  carry 
on,  that  sometimes  'tis  Two  or  Three  Tears  before 
it  gets  to  Chatham." 

The  patrons  of  the  smugglers  were  among  the 
most  honourable  in  the  land ;  for  instance,  on 
August  22,  1717,  Alexander  Pope  gave  the  follow- 
ing elegantly  worded  order  to  one,  John  Caryll, 
a  Sussex  squire  of  Jacobite  proclivities.  "I  beg 
you  to  do  me  a  familiar  or  rather  domestic  piece  of 
service.  It  is,  when  a  hogshead  of  good  French 
wine  falls  into  your  hands — whether  out  of  the 
skies  or  whatever  element  that  pays  no  customs — 
that  you  would  favour  me  with  about  twelve 
dozen  of  it  at  the  price  you  give." 

Unfortunately  for  the  smugglers  an  unsympa- 
thetic Government,  anxious  to  collect  its  duties, 
organised  an  effective  system  of  coastguards, 
which  enormously  increased  the  risks  of  their 
calling  and  practically  stamped  out  the  industry. 
A  return  to  Protection  would  have  but  little 
chance  of  restoring  the  venerable  trade  (excepting 
in  the  poor  spirited  and  feeble  form  of  secreting 
objects  of  value  in  hat,  pocket,  umbrella,  or  port- 
manteau bottom),  for  tobacco  and  alcohol,  by  far 
the  most  usual  freight  handled  by  the  old  smugglers, 
have  never  ceased  to  be  liable  to  duty. 

From  the  entrance  to  Shoreham  Harbour,  with 
its  rather  depressing  surroundings,  one  passes  in 
a  few  hundred  yards  to  the  tree-hidden  village  of 
Kingston,  where  house  and  church  stand  side  by 
side  amid  beautiful  shrubberies  and  lawns.  From 
the  twelfth  to  the  fourteenth  century  the  place 
belonged  to  the  Norman  family  of  de  Buci  or 


SHOREHAM  169 

Bowsey,  whose  name  has  become  corrupted  into 
"  by  sea,"  a  description  appropriate  enough.  The 
dedication  of  the  little  church  to  St.  Julian  is 
evidently  a  relic  of  their  influence.  He  was 
traditionally  a  third-century  Bishop  of  Le  Mans, 
and  the  first  successful  missionary  in  the  terri- 
tories that  afterwards  became  Normandy.  The 
quiet  little  sanctuary  consists  of  chancel  and  nave 
with  low  central  tower  between,  it  is  beautiful 
Early  English  work  and  belongs  to  the  very  first 
years  of  the  thirteenth  century;  the  tower  is 
vaulted  and  the  shafts  of  its  arches  have  black 
marble  caps.  Soon  after  the  church  was  built  a 
tall  but  narrow  aisle  was  added  on  the  north  side 
of  the  nave,  high  arches  with  round  pillars  and 
responds  open  into  it.  On  the  north  of  the 
chancel  seems  to  have  been  an  anchorite's  cell ; 
such  are  not  uncommon  in  Sussex. 

Only  a  short  half  -  mile  away  is  the  still 
picturesque  village  of  Southwick,  with  its  old  farm 
buildings  and  its  green.  Here,  in  1611,  was  born  the 
learned  mathematician  John  Pell,  who  at  a  time 
when  Holland  led  the  earth  in  scholarship  was 
made  professor  at  Amsterdam.  Later  he  was 
Cromwell's  agent  in  Switzerland,  and  afterwards 
taking  Holy  Orders  he  was  domestic  chaplain  for 
a  time  to  the  Primate  of  All  England,  but  he  died 
in  poverty  and  left  no  work  of  any  importance  to 
sustain  his  once  high  reputation.  Southwick 
church  tower  is  Early  Norman  in  the  lowest  stage, 
and  the  arch  into  the  nave,  which  is  hardly  more 
than  a  doorway,  has  strange-looking  caps  with 
Ionic  volutes.  The  next  stage  is  still  Norman  with 
singular  arcading,  partly  pierced ;  the  next  has 
poor  Early  English  lancets  and  round  openings  for 
the  sound  of  bells.  Resting  on  the  corbels  that  once 


170  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

sustained  a  parapet  is  an  octagonal  shingled  spire. 
The  effect  of  this  venerable  steeple  is  greatly  im- 
proved by  the  wallflowers  that  are  rooted  in  its 
mortar.  Between  the  chancel  and  the  south 
chapel  are  Norman  arches,  largely  rebuilt,  whose 
caps  have  Ionic  volutes.  The  original  nave  seems 
to  have  been  without  aisles  if  one  may  judge  by  a 
narrow  passage  through  the  wall  from  its  south- 
east corner  into  the  chapel.  The  present  nave  is 
modern  and  extremely  bad. 

These  villages  are  on  the  plain.  They  have 
neighbours  on  the  lower  slopes  of  the  Downs 
which  here  are  getting  closer  and  closer  to  the  sea 
as  one  proceeds  towards  the  east.  Portslade, 
approached  by  the  steepest  of  roads,  is  a  restful 
village  that  has  grown  an  ugly  suburb  on  the  sea. 
Just  north  of  the  churchyard  are  the  scanty  ivied 
ruins  of  the  old  manor-house  of  Norman  date, 
which  retains  a  perfect  double  window  and  other 
details  ;  there  was  evidently  a  small  tower.  Sussex 
is  rich  in  examples  of  mediaeval  manor-house  and 
church  standing  side  by  side,  in  every  case  the 
former  has  been  completely  transformed.  Usually 
the  villeins'  huts  that  grew  into  the  village  were 
close  by,  sometimes  they  were  some  distance  off, 
and  the  church  and  house  stand  alone  in  the  old 
demesne,  which  later  became  the  park,  as  at 
Wiston,  Shermanbury,  Findon,  Parham,  and  else- 
where. The  church  at  Portslade  has  a  south 
arcade  of  Transition  Norman-Early  English 
date,  round  pillars  with  little  foot  ornaments  and 
scallop  caps,  the  arches  pointed.  Tower,  chancel, 
and  other  parts  are  Early  English  ;  two  lancets  in 
the  eastern  wall.  A  modern  aisle  terminates  in  a 
modern  chapel  with  vaulted  roof  for  the  old 
family  of  Brackenbury,  now  extinct. 


SHOREHAM  171 

Near  by  on  the  Downs,  lonely  yet,  though  in  a 
land  invaded  by  slate  and  brick  and  golf  ball, 
stands  Hangleton,  of  whose  manor  died  Sir  Philip 
Sydney  seised  in  1586.  There  is  an  interesting  old 
house,  once  the  home  of  the  family  of  Bellingham. 
It  is  largely  Elizabethan,  but  there  are  much  older 
portions  in  the  farm  stables  and  elsewhere ;  a 
ribbed  ceiling  of  moulded  plaster  lighted  by  large 
transomed  windows  displays  on  its  ample  bosses 
the  fleur-de-lis,  three  bugles,  horse  eating  oak- 
leaves,  Tudor  rose,  and  other  devices.  It  was 
largely  remodelled  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  the  stairway  has  turned  balusters.  What  is 
now  the  kitchen  has  a  classic  screen,  from  which 
have  long  disappeared  the  Ten  Commandments, 
and  the  often-quoted  exhortation  that  used  no 
vowel  but  "  e  "  : — 

"  Persevere  ye  perfect  men, 
Ever  keep  these  precepts  ten." 

Before  Edward  Bellingham,  in  1561,  was  held  an 
inquisition  at  Steyning  for  the  "  execucion  of  ye 
statute  of  apparell  for  men's  wifes."  Only  if  their 
husbands  kept  a  certain  number  of  good  horses 
that  might  be  commandeered  in  time  of  war  might 
ladies  be  resplendent  in  dresses  of  velvet  and  silk. 

The  little  hillside  church  of  Hangleton  is  dedi- 
cated to  St.  Helen,  mother  of  Constantino  the 
Great,  who  found  the  Cross.  Gladly  would  we 
claim  her  as  of  British  birth  and  believe  Man- 
deville's  story  that  "  she  was  daughter  of  King 
Coel,  born  in  Colchester,  that  was  King  of  Eng- 
land, that  was  clept  then  Britain  the  more  ;  the 
which  the  Emperor  Constance  wedded  to  his  wife, 
for  her  beauty,  and  gat  upon  her  Constantine, 


172  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

that  was  after  Emperor  of  Rome,  and  King  of 
England."  But  unfortunately  the  Merry  Old  Soul 
who  would  have  made  short  work  of  Temperance 
reformers,  had  there  been  any  in  his  day,  is  merely 
an  eponymous  hero  invented  to  account  for  the 
name  of  Colchester,  and  Helen  was  in  all  proba- 
bility born  in  Bithynia.  The  nave  of  the  church 
is  Early  Norman  with  quoins  of  clunch  or  chalk, 
the  walls  are  largely  of  big  flints  in  herring-bone  ; 
some  original  doors  and  windows  remain.  The 
chancel  opens  without  an  arch  and  contains  a 
nameless  Elizabethan  monument ;  there  is  a  little 
tower  at  the  west.  The  interior,  brick  floored 
and  white-washed  over  walls  and  roof,  recalls  the 
ideals  of  generations  that  have  passed  away. 

In  the  churchyard  is  an  ornate  mosaic  altar- 
tomb  to  Edward  Vaughan  Kenealy,  the  leading 
counsel  for  the  Tichborne  claimant,  who  was  dis- 
barred for  his  violent  conduct  of  that  famous  case 
and  afterwards  elected  to  Parliament.  He  died  in 
1880. 

Between  this  village  and  West  Blatchington, 
close  to  the  line  of  the  old  Roman  road,  were  dis- 
covered in  1818,  no  rarity  on  the  Sussex  coast, 
foundations  of  a  Roman  villa.  This  district  seems 
always  to  have  been  deemed  to  present  eligible 
sites  for  such  buildings,  as  indeed  may  be  said  of 
the  whole  shore  line  of  the  county.  There  are, 
however,  excellent  reasons  why  archaeologists 
fifteen  centuries  hence  will  not  explore  the  re- 
mains of  our  villas.  How  that  word  has  lowered 
its  meaning !  Through  Hadrian's  Villa  at  Tibur, 
ruins  of  mosaic  and  marble  and  concrete  and  brick 
covered  with  maiden-hair  ferns,  one  wanders  be- 
wildered for  miles  and  miles.  It  was  deemed  a 
great  assumption  of  superiority  when  Captain 


SHOREHAM  173 

Boldwig,  who  had  Mr.  Pickwick  when  unsober 
wheeled  off  to  the  village  pound,  called  his  resi- 
dence a  villa,  but  now  the  poor  word  merely 
suggests  a  frail  bow-windowed  cottage  of  brick 
and  slate,  not  one  of  whose  doors  will  open  with- 
out a  kick,  nor  a  window  without  a  blow.  Brigh- 
ton is  now  in  full  view,  and  in  fact  the  rectory  of 
West  Blachingtoii  is  united  with  its  vicarage.  An 
old  Presbyterian  hymn,  which  declares  that  the  Al- 
mighty has  provided  all  things  needful  and  "  doing 
is  a  deadly  thing,  doing  ends  in  death,"  is  very  true 
of  man's  treatment  of  the  Downs.  If  let  alone 
their  scenery  may  challenge  comparison  with  any- 
thing of  the  kind  on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  but 
if  as  hereabouts  market  gardens  and  cabbage 
plots  are  allowed  untidily  to  sprawl  over  their 
surface  they  produce  the  very  saddest  effect  of 
weariness  and  desolation. 

Blatchington  church  is  of  Norman  date  with 
later  additions,  and  after  long  lying  in  ruins  it 
was  rebuilt  in  1890-1.  Two  little  Norman  win- 
dows remain  in  the  west  wall,  a  similar  one  on  the 
south  was  too  decayed  to  be  restored.  Rather 
puzzling  foundations  of  a  western  extension  and 
of  two  small  chambers  on  the  south  were  found. 
Under  the  chancel  steps  was  discovered  a  flint- 
built  grave  containing  a  complete  skeleton,  per- 
haps that  of  the  founder  of  the  church  ;  other 
human  remains,  a  plain  coffin  slab,  a  few  stone 
fragments,  chiefly  of  Norman  date,  and  a  rusty  old 
key  likewise  came  to  light.  Undoubted  marks  of 
fire  were  to  be  seen  on  what  remained  of  the 
inside  plaster.  The  manor-house  has  a  large 
mediaeval  diagonal  buttress  of  flint,  and  to  a  small 
extent  Roman  materials  seem  to  have  been  used 
in  the  building  of  the  village. 


Market  on  the 
Seaeb.    A.D.iSio 


OME  watering-places  (which  are 
outside  Sussex)  might  be  described 
in  words  attributed  to  President 
Lincoln  :  "  For  those  who  like  this 
sort  of  thing,  this  is  the  sort  of 
thing  they  like."  This  could  hardly 
be  said  of  Brighton,  her  attractions  are  so  great  and 
so  varied  that  she  has  justly  been  called  the  Queen  of 
Watering  Places,  and  this  is  not  disputed  by  more 
than  about  a  dozen  of  those  who  would  like  to  be 
deemed  her  rivals.  But  in  very  truth  Brighton 
has  no  rivals,  for  the  same  reason  that  London  has 
none.  There  is  but  one  Metropolis,  and  it  has  but 
one  suburb  on  the  sea.  No  place  is  more  loved  by 
its  own  people,  indeed  the  writer  listening  to  his 
fellow-Brightonians  talk  has  frequently  felt  they 
were  in  much  the  same  peril  as  in  the  Prophet's 
opinion  were  the  citizens  of  Damascus,  when 
Mohammed  is  said  to  have  refused  to  abide  among 

174 


BRIGHTON  175 

them,  exclaiming,  "  Here  I  cannot  tarry,  lest  having 
found  my  Heaven  on  earth  I  might  cease  to  seek 
one  beyond  the  grave." 

One  fault  of  Brighton  however  may  at  once  be 
pointed   out,   in   Sussex   it   is  not   of  Sussex  but 
belongs  to  England  as  a  whole,  just  as  Liverpool 
is   in  Lancashire  but  not  Lancastrian.     It  is   too 
closely  in  touch  with  the  capital  of  the  Empire  to 
be  provincial  in    any    sense.     The   atmosphere   of 
Sussex  spreads  but  little  in  this  town.     Eloquence 
about  London-by-the-Sea  is  exceeding  stale,  but  it 
is  also  exceedingly  true.     Even  in  Paris  the  writer 
once  saw   some  hats   marked   "Usine  a  Brighton 
(Angleterre)."      The  writer  feels   afraid   of  being 
unduly  laudatory  about  his  native  place,  and  for  a 
general  description  prefers  to  quote  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes's  appreciation  of  the  week  that  he  spent  in 
1886  at  this  "  magnificent   city  built    for   enjoy- 
ment."    It  was  "  not  the  time  of  Brighton's  influx 
of  visitors,  but  the  city  was  far  from  dull.     The 
houses  are  very  large,  and  have  the  grand  air,  as  if 
meant  for  princes ;   the  shops  are   well   supplied ; 
the  salt  breeze  comes  in  fresh  and  wholesome,  and 
the  noble  esplanade  (such  a  public  walk  as  I  never 
saw   anything    to   compare   with)    is   lively   with 
promenaders  and  bath-chairs,  some  of  them  occu- 
pied by  people  evidently  ill  or  presumably  lame, 
some,  I  suspect,  employed  by  healthy  invalids  who 
are  too  lazy  to  walk.     I  took  one  myself,  drawn  by 
an  old  man,  to  see  how  I  liked  it,  and  found  it  very 
convenient,   but   I   was   tempted    to    ask   him   to 
change  places  and  let  me  drag   him"   (One    Hun- 
dred Days  in  Europe).    Close  to  Holmes's  own  birth- 
place in  Massachusetts  there  is  another  Brighton ; 
the  name  (unlike  most  Sussex  ones)  is  by  no  means 
uncommon  in  the  New  World,  and  in   1899  the 


176  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

writer  visited  a  red-brick  village  bearing  it  among 
prosperous  farms  in  the  valley  of  the  S.  Platte  River 
just  this  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  Colorado. 
On  the  map  of  the  globe  it  is  written  of  Brighton 
that  her  fame  is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth, 
and  her  name  to  the  ends  of  the  world.  Nor  is 
this  place  the  mere  upstart  town,  child  of  a 
prince's  whim,  that  many  guide-books  would  have 
us  believe.  It  figures  in  Domesday  as  Bristelmes- 
tune,  already  a  considerable  village  with  a  church, 
"  defending  itself "  for  five  hides  and  a  half,  con- 
taining thirteen  villeins  and  two  bordiers.  Prob- 
ably the  waves  now  break  over  the  site  of  ..the  old 
settlement,  somewhere  just  south  of  the  Aquar- 
ium. Nothing  is  known  of  the  Saxon  owner  whom 
the  name  seems  to  commemorate.  Many  Sussex 
villages  are  pronounced  shorter  than  they  are 
written,  as  Selmeston,  Simson,  Heathfield,  Heffle  ; 
and  so  on ;  Brighton  has  long  been  spelt  as  it  is 
pronounced.  Its  importance  dates  from  Norman 
days;  a  charter  of  Bishop  Seffrid  II.  (p.  28)  con- 
firmed to  the  Monastery  of  St.  Pancras  at  Lewes 
Brightelmstone  with  the  chapel  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
showing  that  a  second  place  of  worship  had  been 
required  or  at  any  rate  provided.  This  chapel  was 
situated  close  to  where  the  Town  Hall  now  stands, 
and  in  1888  flint  foundations  that  possibly  belonged 
to  it  were  discovered  in  Nile  Street.  It  is  com- 
memorated by  the  name  of  the  square  that  con- 
tains the  Town  Hall  and  the  Market,  also  by  a 
vast  modern  brick  church,  conspicuous  from  the 
Lewes  Viaduct,  an  extremely  impressive  building 
within,  though  locally  called  Noah's  Ark  from  its 
general  appearance  without ;  it  is  renowned  for 
the  height  both  of  its  ritual  and  of  its  roof.  The 
market  dates  (at  least)  from  1313,  when  John, 


BRIGHTON  177 

the  eighth  and  last  Earl  of  Warenne  and  Surrey 
(p.  230),  got  a  charter  "for  a  market  every  Thursday 
at  his  manor  of  Brightelmstone."  Thus  mediaeval 
Brighton  was  more  than  the  "  mere  fishing  village  " 
so  often  described  to  emphasise  the  contrast  with 
the  present  importance  of  the  place.  The  fishing 
industry,  however,  which  still  makes  the  eastern 
part  of  the  beach  attractive  and  picturesque,  dates 
from  the  earliest  times,  and  was  probably  the 
original  reason  for  the  existence  of  the  town. 
During  the  Middle  Ages  Brighton  vessels  in  con- 
siderable numbers  used  to  resort  to  the  waters  off 
Great  Yarmouth  for  purposes  of  fishing,  like  the 
ships  of  the  Cinque  Ports. 

Brighton  had  to  suffer  a  good  deal  from  Henry 
VIII.'s  most  unnecessary  wars  with  France.  In 
the  sixth  year  of  that  sovereign's  reign,  Hall's 
Chronicle  records  :  "  About  this  time,  the  warres 
yet  contynewynge  between  England  and  Fraunce, 
prior  Ihon,  great  Capitayne  of  the  Frenche  nauy, 
with  his  Galeys  and  Foystes  charged  with  great 
basylyskes  and  other  greate  artilery  came  on  the 
border  of  Sussex  and  came  a  land  in  the  night  at 
a  poore  village  in  Sussex  called  bright  Helmston 
and  or  the  watch  coulde  him  escrye  he  sett  fyer 
on  the  toune  and  toke  suche  poore  goodes  as  he 
f ounde :  then  the  watche  f yred  the  bekyns  and 
people  began  to  gather,  whiche  seynge  prior  Ihon 
sowned  his  trompett  to  call  his  men  aborde." 

In  1545  the  French  again  tried  to  burn  the  town, 
and  the  proceedings  are  depicted  in  a  drawing  in 
the  British  Museum,  frequently  reproduced.  There 
is  no  trace  of  a  harbour,  the  town  is  enclosed  by 
the  still  existing  North,  East,  and  West  Streets, 
whose  direction,  as  well  as  that  of  the  lanes  be- 
tween them,  is  mediaeval,  despite  the  absence  of  any 

12 


178  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

building  that  dates  earlier  than  the  eighteenth 
century.  A  road  is  shown  leading  up  to  the  church. 
Windmills  and  a  beacon  are  supported  on  single 
posts.  The  fighting  on  this  occasion  is  thus  de- 
scribed by  Holinshed  :  "  After  this,  the  eighteenth 
of  lulie,  the  admerall  of  France  monsieur  Dane- 
balte  hoisted  vp  sailes,  and  with  his  whole  nauie 
came  f  oorth  in  to  the  seas,  and  arriued  on  the  coast 
of  Sussex  before  bright  Hamsteed,  and  set  certeine 
of  his  soldiers  on  land  to  burne  and  spoile  the 
countrie  :  but  the  beacons  were  fired,  and  the  in- 
habitants thereabouts  came  down  so  thicke,  that  the 
Frenchmen  were  driuen  to  flie  with  losse  of  diuerse 
of  their  numbers  :  so  that  they  did  little  hurt  there. 

"The  French  .  .  .  drew  along  the  coast  of 
Sussex;  and  a  small  number  of  them  landed 
againe  in  Sussex,  of  whome  few  returned  to  their 
ships,  for  diuerse  gentlemen  of  the  countrie,  as  Sir 
Nicholas  Pelham  (p.  261)  and  others,  with  such 
power  as  was  raised  vpon  the  sudden,  tooke  them 
vp  by  the  waie,  and  quicklie  distressed  them. 
When  they  had  searched  euerie  where  by  the 
coast,  and  saw  men  still  readie  to  receiue  them 
with  battle,  they  turned  sterne,  and  so  got  them 
home  againe,  without  anie  act  atchieved  worthie 
to  be  mentioned." 

Brighton  still  maintains  close  relations  with  the 
French,  but  they  are  of  vastly  more  friendly 
character.  The  excellent  excursion  steamers  that 
ply  from  both  the  modern  piers  make  it  possible  to 
spend  several  hours  at  Boulogne  without  sleeping 
out  of  Sussex,  and  during  a  warm  summer  a  plea- 
santer  way  of  spending  a  day  can  hardly  be 
imagined.  The  steamers  also  make  frequent  trips 
along  the  English  shore  from  Dover  on  the  east  to 
the  Isle  of  Wight  on  the  west. 


BRIGHTON  179 

Early  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  strenuous  efforts 
were  made  to  fortify  the  town,  and  a  strong  round 
blockhouse  with  gun  garden  was  provided  on  the 
shore,  the  streets  being  at  the  same  time  protected 
by  walls  and  gates.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted 
that  the  ravages  of  the  sea  and  the  destructiveness 
of  mankind  have  between  them  entirely  destroyed 
these  works.  At  this  time  Brighton  possessed  the 
largest  ship  belonging  to  any  Sussex  port,  appro- 
priately named  the  Bartholomew,  of  60  tons  ; 
while  the  town  had  170  fishing- vessels  out  of 
only  321  in  the  whole  county.  The  position  of  the 
harbour  is  not  clear.  It  may  have  been  protected 
by  shingle  and  sand  at  the  eastmost  mouth  of  the 
Adur,  but  more  probably  it  was  at  Pool  Valley,  by 
the  mouth  of  the  stream  called  Wellsburne  (cor- 
rupted into  Whalesbone)  which,  rising  at  Patcham, 
gives  its  name  to  the  hundred,  including  Brighton, 
Preston,  and  Patcham.  The  little  river  is  now 
relegated  to  a  brick  drain  which  passes  under  the 
Steine  and  other  gardens  in  the  bottom  of  the 
valley.  The  sea  has  encroached  by  many  yards, 
and  but  for  groins  and  granite  and  concrete  walls 
it  would  be  encroaching  still.  It  seems  to  have 
been  undoubtedly  because  the  waves  were  engulf- 
ing, or  at  any  rate  threatening,  the  original  church 
that  a  new  one  was  built  on  the  Downs  well 
beyond  their  reach.  From  the  style  of  the  present 
St.  Nicholas  it  seems  that  this  was  done  fairly  late 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  that  the  materials 
of  the  old  church  were  to  some  extent  used  up. 
The  often  repeated  statement  that  the  present  site 
was  within  a  Druidical  Circle  whose  stones  were 
employed  in  building  the  existing  fountain  in  the 
Old  Steine  seems  to  rest  on  very  shadowy  evidence. 
The  round  font  with  stiff  foliage  and  other  orna- 


180  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

ment  of  a  rather  Byzantine  character  has  bas- 
reliefs,  one  of  which  undoubtedly  represents  the 
Last  Supper,  and  another  may  depict  St.  Nicholas 
stilling  the  storm,  but  the  latter  seems  very  doubt- 
ful, if  only  because  the  general  style  of  the  work 
and  the  fact  that  our  Lord  and  some  of  the  Apostles 
are  moustached  seem  to  indicate  that  it  is  a  Saxon 
work.  The  sculpture,  which  is  of  great  interest, 
rather  resembles  the  bas-reliefs  in  the  south  quire 
aisle  of  the  Cathedral  (p,  27).  Stones  of  Norman 
date,  one  of  them  with  part  of  a  corner  shaft,  are 
built  into  the  walls  of  the  tower,  which,  as  well  as 
the  nave  arcades  with  octagonal  pillars,  seems  to 
date  from  about  1370,  i.e.,  the  period  when  the 
Decorated  style  was  just  giving  way  to  the  Perpen- 
dicular. The  fine  rood  screen  and  loft,  much 
restored  and  provided  with  gunmetal  gates,  as 
well  as  the  arch  between  the  chancel  and  its  south 
chapel  are  good  specimens  of  fifteenth-century 
work.  The  church,  as  it  stands,  is  mostly  modern, 
and  possesses  a  noble  series  of  stained-glass 
windows,  the  work  of  C.  E.  Kempe  (p.  201).  In  the 
churchyard  remain  the  four  octagonal  steps,  the 
base  and  a  fragment  of  the  shaft  of  the  old  cross. 
Like  many  others  in  England  (in  every  county 
except  Derbyshire)  this  church  is  dedicated  to 
genial  St.  Nicholas  or  Santa  Claus,  a  precociously 
pious  but  lively  and  most  kindly  person,  who  was 
Bishop  of  Myra  in  Asia  Minor.  On  a  pilgrimage 
to  Jerusalem  he  stilled  a  storm,  three  murdered 
children  he  restored  to  life,  for  three  sisters  who 
were  in  danger  of  becoming  old  maids  he  provided 
dowries  by  the  delicate  and  unconventional  method 
of  throwing  through  their  windows  three  gold 
balls,  objects  which  have  now  become  the  emblems 
of  a  calling  that  claims  him  as  patron  saint.  At 


BRIGHTON  181 

the  Council  of  Nicaea  he  vindicated  the  orthodox 
faith  and  electrified  the  august  assembly  by  ad- 
ministering to  heretic  Arius  a  sounding  box  on  the 
ears.  His  popularity  in  the  West  vastly  increased 
after  1087,  when  some  sailors  of  Bari,  in  Italy, 
made  a  raid  on  Myra,  captured  his  relics,  and  bore 
them  in  triumph  to  their  own  city,  where  they  are 
still  enshrined.  On  his  day  during  the  Middle 
Ages  the  boy  bishop  was  chosen  from  among  the 
choristers. 

This  church  still  uses  a  hymn  about  St.  Nicholas 
that  was  written  by  Canon  Ellerton,  a  former 
curate. 

"Praise  our  God  for  all  the  wonders 

Wrought  by  His  right  hand  of  old ; 
Deeds  of  which  we  tell  our  children, 

Saints  of  whom  our  fathers  told  ; 
Praise  Him  for  His  faithful  servant 

By  whose  name  this  House  we  call, 
Champion  of  his  Saviour's  Godhead 

In  Nicaea's  Council-hall ! 

Brought  by  long-forgotten  teachers, 

Many  a  legend  fair  and  quaint 
Taught  our  simple  sires  to  cherish 

Memories  of  the  Sailor-Saint : 
Told  them  how  he  loved  the  children, 

How  he  succoured  those  in  need, 
How  he  burned  with  righteous  anger, 

Valiant  for  the  Church's  Creed. 

So  the  seaman  and  the  fisher 

Called  the  Church  upon  the  Down 
By  his  name  who  taught  the  sailors 

In  that  old  Levantine  town  ; 
Carved  upon  their  Font  his  story, 

Raised  his  tower  above  the  shore 
Found  their  rest  beneath  its  shadow 

When  the  storms  of  life  were  o'er." 


182  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

In  1615  the  patronage  of  the  living  was  granted 
to  the  Bishop  of  Chichester  in  a  somewhat  tauto- 
logous  document,  which  described  it  as  "the  ad- 
vowson,  nomination,  donation,  free  disposition,  and 
right  of  patronage  and  presentation,  to  the  vicarage 
of  the  Parish  Church  of  Brighthelmsted,  als  Bright- 
helniston  als  Brightelniston  als  Brightelmiston, 
in  our  county  of  Sussex."  A  Quaker,  one  John 
Pullat,  was  in  1658  put  into  the  Blockhouse  for 
"  speaking  to  the  Priest  and  people  in  the  Steeple- 
house."  Doubtless  the  spirit  moved  him  to  be  as 
little  pleased  with  the  Puritan  as  with  the  Anglican 
Service.  The  Puritans  in  early  days  objected  to 
the  word  "  church  "  being  used  except  of  the  com- 
munity, but  the  word  "  priest "  in  the  circumstances 
is  curious. 

Just  outside  the  door  of  the  south  chapel  is  the 
famous  altar- tomb  to  Captain  Nicholas  Tattersall, 
whose  epitaph  is  a  fine  example  of  the  exuberant 
loyalty  of  the  Restoration  period  ;  the  date  is  1674. 

"  Within  this  marble  monument  doth  lye 
Approued  Ffaith  honor  and  Loyalty 
In  this  cold  clay  he  hath  now  tane  up  his  station 
At  once  preserued  ye  Church  the  Crowne  and  nation 
when  Charles  ye  Greate  was  nothing  but  a  breath 
this  ualiant  soule  stept  betweene  him  and  death 
usurper's  threats  nor  tyrant  rebells  frowne 
Could  not  afright  his  duty  to  the  Crowne 
which  glorious  act  of  his  for  Church  and  state 
Eight  Princes  in  one  day  did  Gratulate 
Proffessing  all  to  him  in  debt  to  bee 
As  all  the  world  are  to  his  memory 
Since  Earth  Could  not  Reward  his  worth  have  give 
Hee  now  receiues  it  from  the  King  of  heaven."" 


*  This  is  taken  from  the  original  but  without  the  least 
implication  that  the  conjectural  emendations  usually  found  iu 


BRIGHTON  183 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  the  informa- 
tion imparted  in  the  last  line  was  secured,  particu- 
larly as  Tattersall's  help  in  the  royal  escape  was 
purely  a  matter  of  business  ;  the  whole  credit 
belonged  to  Colonel  Gounter  (p.  54).  Charles  was 
recognised  by  the  landlord  of  the  George  Inn  in 
West  Street,  where  he  stayed  ;  but  the  secret  was 
well  kept,  and  Mrs.  Thrale,  Dr.  Johnson,  and  Fanny 
Burney  were  able  in  later  days  to  visit  the  hostelry, 
renamed  the  King's  Head,  with  loyal  satisfaction. 

After  the  Restoration  Tattersall  was  well  re- 
warded both  with  money  and  official  rank  ;  he  was 
good  enough  further  to  display  his  abounding 
loyalty  by  helping  to  break  up  a  dissenting  con- 
gregation in  Brighton,  but  the  permanent  effect 
was  not  great.  Nonconformity  has  long  been  very 
firmly  rooted  in  the  town,  and  in  the  lane  called 
Union  Street  may  still  be  seen  the  original  date 

stone  (inscribed  "  16  B.  88  W ")  of  the  first 

Congregational  chapel. 

Among  very  numerous  others  who  lie  at  rest  in 
the  vast  churchyards  of  St.  Nicholas,  divided  into 
three  by  roads,  are  Phoebe  Hassell  (1713-1821), 
who  fought  in  the  5th  Regiment  of  Foot  and  was 
wounded  at  Fontenoy,  and  Martha  Gunn,  who  died 
in  1815  and  was  "peculiarly  distinguished  as  a 
bather  in  this  town  nearly  70  years."  The  latter 
was  a  friend  of  the  First  Gentleman  of  Europe,  who 
on  one  occasion  thought  it  a  good  practical  joke  to 
keep  her  in  conversation  near  the  great  kitchen  fire 
at  the  Pavilion  when  she  had  just  been  given  a 
large  pat  of  butter. 

But  before  Brighton  was  to  begin  her  glorious 
career  of  these  latter  days  there  were  evil  times 

printed  copies  are  not  improvements.     The  letters  were  recut 
in  the  eighteenth  century  and  perhaps  mistakes  were  made. 


184  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

in  store  for  the  town  ;  in  1689  an  order  of 
Sessions  was  issued  to  compel  surrounding  villages 
to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  Brighton  poor, 
and  in  the  great  storms  of  1703-5  the  remains 
of  the  old  settlement  under  the  cliff  were  finally 
washed  away.  A  very  gloomy  account  of  the  place 
in  1720  is  given  by  John  Warburton,  a  F.S.A.  and 
noted  antiquary,  whose  cook  is  said  on  one  occasion 
to  have  destroyed  some  unique  Elizabethan  and 
Jacobean  plays.  "I  passed  through  a  ruinous 
village  called  Hove,  which  the  sea  is  daily  eating 
up.  It  is  in  a  fair  way  of  being  quite  deserted  ; 
but  the  church  being  large,  and  a  good  distance  from 
the  shore,  may  perhaps  escape."  "A  good  mile 
further,  going  along  the  beach,  I  arrived  at  Bright- 
hems  tead,  a  large,  ill-built,  irregular  market  town, 
mostly  inhabited  by  sea-faring  men,  who  choose 
their  residence  here,  as  being  situated  on  the  main, 
and  convenient  for  their  going  on  shore,  on  their 
passing  and  re-passing  in  the  coasting  trade.  The 
town  is  likely  to  share  the  same  fate  with  the  last, 
the  sea  having  washed  away  the  half  of  it ;  whole 
streets  being  now  deserted,  and  the  beach  almost 
covered  with  walls  of  houses  being  almost  entire,  the 
lime  or  cement  being  strong  enough,  when  thrown 
down,  to  resist  the  violence  of  the  waves.  The 
church  is  situated  on  the  downs,  at  a  furlong  dis- 
tance from  the  town ;  it  is  large,  but  nothing  about 
it  worthy  of  remark,  or  in  the  town ;  there  not 
being  any  person  of  fortune  in  the  town  but  one 
Masters  (or  Morley?)  a  gentleman  of  good  birth." 
Nor  is  there  much  comfort  to  be  gleaned  from 
the  almost  contemporary  account  of  De  Foe  (1724). 
"  The  sea  is  very  unkind  to  this  Town,  and  has,  by 
its  continual  Encroachments,  so  gain'd  upon  them, 
that  in  a  little  time  more  they  might  reasonably 


BRIGHTON  185 

expect  it  would  eat  away  the  whole  Town,  above 
100  Houses  having  been  devoured  by  the  Water  in  a 
few  Years  past.  This  Danger  is  so  imminent,  that 
they  have  been  obliged  to  get  Briefs  to  beg  Money 
all  over  England,  to  raise  Banks  against  the  Water ; 
the  Expence  of  which,  the  Brief  expressly  says,  will 
be  Eight  Thousand  Pounds ;  which  if  one  were  to 
look  on  the  Town,  would  seem  to  be  more  than  all 
the  Houses  in  it  are  worth."  This  Brief  was  read 
at  East  Hoathly  Church  in  1757,  as  we  learn  from 
Turner's  Diary  (p.  250).  John  Owen's  (p.  282)  ac- 
count of  Brighton  is  at  least  exceedingly  concise. 
"  Brighthelmston  is  a  town  pretty  large  and  popu- 
lous, chiefly  inhabited  by  fishermen.  It  has  a 
comodious  Harbour  and  a  Mt  on  Sat." 

The  beginning  of  much  better  times  came  when 
Dr.  Russel  of  Lewes  (p.  245)  strongly  recommended 
his  patients  to  visit  Brighton  for  the  benefit  of 
the  sea  air  and  the  mineral  spring  called  St. 
Anne's  Well,  in  Hove,  and  unlike  some  others  he 
followed  his  own  advice.  So  much  did  he  contri- 
bute to  the  growth  of  the  place  that  by  grateful 
Brightonians  he  has  sometimes  been  called  the 
founder  of  what  was  a  prosperous  market  town 
centuries  before  he  was  born.  It  is  rather  singu- 
lar that  he  should  have  no  statue  in  a  town 
where  such  memorials  are  rather  numerous. 

The  Iter  Sussexiense  of  Dr.  John  Burton,  writ- 
ten in  Greek  in  1751  and  translated  into  the 
vernacular  by  Blaauw,  contains  an  unadvertising 
description  of  Brighton :  "A  village  on  the  sea 
coast,  lying  in  a  valley  gradually  sloping  and  yet 
deep.  It  is  not  indeed  contemptible  as  to  size, 
for  it  is  thronged  with  people,  though  the  in- 
habitants are  mostly  very  needy  and  wretched  in 
their  mode  of  living,  occupied  in  the  employment 


186  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

of  fishing,  robust  in  their  bodies,  laborious,  skilled 
in  all  nautical  crafts,  and,  as  it  is  said,  terrible 
cheats  of  the  custom-house  officers. 

"  Departing  therefore  to  the  inn,  like  the  heroes 
of  Homer  after  a  battle,  so  did  we  perform  our 
part  most  manfully,  and  then  turned  to  bed,  in- 
tending to  sleep ;  but  this  sweet  lulling  of  the 
senses  was  begrudged  us  by  some  sailors  arriving 
all  night  long,  and  in  the  middle  of  their  drink, 
singing  out  with  their  barbarous  voices,  clapping 
and  making  all  manner  of  noises.  The  women 
also  disturbed  us,  quarrelling  and  fighting  about 
their  fish. 

'  Nor  lacked  there  in  the  house 
Mud-footed  Thetis  with  her  briny  friends.'  " 

Dr.  Burton  had  his  own  theory  of  Sussex  mud 
— such  jokes  were  once  new.  "  Come  now,  my 
friends,  I  will  set  before  you  a  sort  of  problem  in 
Aristotle's  fashion  :  Why  is  it  that  the  oxen,  the 
swine,  the  women,  and  all  other  animals,  are 
so  long-legged  in  Sussex?  May  it  be  from  the 
difficulty  of  pulling  the  feet  out  of  so  much  mud 
by  the  strength  of  the  ankle,  that  the  muscles  get 
stretched,  as  it  were,  and  the  bones  lengthened  ?  " 

From  a  Lewes  paper  of  October  12,  1771  (p.  114), 
we  have  an  interesting  account  of  an  occasion 
when  the  Custom  House  officers  were  not  cheated. 
"  A  few  days  ago  some  Frenchmen  came  on 
shore  from  aboard  a  packet,  at  Brighthelmston, 
one  of  whom,  preferring  his  own  country  bread 
before  that  of  the  English,  brought  with  him  a 
large  loaf,  which  he  had  under  his  arm,  when  he 
was  seen  by  Mr.  Mucklebury,  whose  curiosity  led 
him  to  know  the  difference,  when,  upon  his  breaking 


BRIGHTON  187 

the  crust,  to  his  very  agreeable  surprise  he  found 
it  contained  a  quantity  of  very  valuable  lace,  which 
he  conveyed  safely  to  Shoreham  Custom  House, 
while  he  left  the  poor  Frenchman  to  bewail  his 
sad  misfortune." 

The  Gentleman's  Magazine  in  1766  allows  us  a 
peep  of  the  material  condition  of  the  town  after 
its  sea  air  had  begun  to  attract  visitors,  but 
before  it  had  been  patronised  by  Royalty.  "  Bright- 
helmstone,  in  the  county  of  Sussex,  is  distant  from 
London  57  miles,  is  a  small,  ill-built  town,  situate 
on  the  sea  coast,  at  present  greatly  resorted  to  in 
the  summer  time  by  persons  labouring  under 
various  disorders  for  the  benefit  of  bathing  and 
drinking  sea-water,  and  by  the  gay  and  polite  on 
account  of  the  company  which  frequent  it  at  that 
season.  Until  within  a  few  years  it  was  no  better 
than  a  mere  fishing  town,  inhabited  by  fishermen 
and  sailors,  but  through  the  recommendation  of 
Dr.  Russel,  and  by  the  means  of  his  writings  in 
favour  of  sea-water,  it  is  become  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal places  in  the  kingdom  for  the  resort  of  the 
idle  and  dissipated,  as  well  as  of  the  diseased  and 
infirm." 

The  magnificent  granite  sea-wall  that  extends 
along  the  whole  front  of  Hove  and  forms  so 
delightful  a  promenade,  with  similar  works  that 
defend  the  gardens  and  esplanade  of  Brighton — not 
to  mention  the  effective  groins  that  preserve  the 
shingle  of  the  beach — make  a  great  storm  at  the 
present  time  an  impressive  spectacle,  especially 
when  the  waves  rise  seventy  or  eighty  feet  into  the 
air,  but  it  was  nothing  of  the  kind  to  Brightonians 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  J.  D.  Parry,  in  his 
Coast  of  Sussex  (1833),  preserves  the  following  from 
a  letter  of  1775,  written  at  Lewes.  "At  Bright- 


188  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

helms  tone,  part  of  the  battery  is  washed  away,  and 
the  water  was  so  high  there,  that  we  heard  it  run 
in  at  the  top  of  a  chimney  of  a  house  that  stood 
near  the  battery.  At  Shoreham,  and  further  west- 
ward, many  fields  sown  with  grain  are  under 
water;  in  short  the  damage  done  is  incon- 
ceivable." 

No  flattering  impression  of  the  town  is  con- 
veyed in  a  letter  to  the  Rev.  William  Unwin,  written 
by  Cowper  on  November  5,  1781.  "You  did  not 
discern  many  signs  of  sobriety,  or  true  wisdom, 
among  the  people  of  Brighthelmstone,  but  it  is  not 
possible  to  observe  the  manners  of  a  multitude,  of 
whatever  rank,  without  learning  something." 

This  plaint  must  be  read  with  appropriate 
sorrow  by  good  Brightonians,  but  in  the  very  next 
year  (1782)  George,  Prince  of  Wales,  who  was  not 
what  we  should  now  consider  strait-laced  in  his 
ideas,  first  visited  the  place,  and  so  delighted  was  he 
that  he  decided  to  have  a  house  there  himself. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  Brighton's  real  boom,  and 
the  fine  statue  of  George  IV.  by  Chantrey  looking 
over  the  Steine  at  the  sea  is  a  grateful  recognition 
of  the  fact  on  the  part  of  the  town.  How  the  First 
Gentleman  of  Europe,  first  as  Heir- Apparent,  then 
as  Prince  Regent,  and  finally  as  the  full-fledged 
Defender  of  the  Faith,  built  and  rebuilt  the  Pavilion, 
painted  the  town  red  and  some  one  else's  black 
horse  white,  how  he  married  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  and 
made  the  poor  old  Duke  of  Norfolk  drunk,  how 
beautiful  was  his  attire,  and  how  Beau  Brummel's 
was  in  no  way  inferior,  how  he  entertained  choice 
companies  but  little  less  disreputable  than  himself 
— all  this  is  a  thrice-told  tale.*  Even  in  Thackeray's 

*  It  may  be  read  in    detail    in    J.  G.  Bishop's    excellent 
The  Brighton  Pavilion. 


BRIGHTON  189 

hands  it  is  a  somewhat  sordid  story ;  some  people 
can  be  ludicrous  in  their  failings,  but  George  IV. 
was  merely  swinish.  Brighton  has  changed  very 
much  since  those  days  :  the  building  which  once  as 
the  ball-room  of  the  Castle  Tavern  resounded  with 
the  uncouth  howls  of  the  royally  drunk,  and  of 
drunken  royalty,  now  as  St.  Stephen's  Church, 
moved  to  quite  another  part  of  the  town,  echoes 
with  far  different  sounds.  It  was  the  Pavilion 
Chapel  for  a  time ;  the  building  in  North  Street, 
called  the  Chapel  Royal,  was  built  by  a  former 
Vicar  of  Brighton,  as  a  chapel  of  ease  to  St. 
Nicholas,  but  the  foundation-stone  was  laid  by  the 
Prince,  and  there  are  still  to  be  seen  the  Royal 
Arms  with  the  original  date,  1793,  while  the  right 
to  the  designation  of  Chapel  Royal  is  recognised  by 
an  Act  of  Parliament. 

The  Old  Steine,  used  in  early  days  as  an  open 
space  for  almost  every  purpose,  is  said  to  have 
derived  its  name  from  the  chalk  cliffs  or  from 
stones  where  the  fishers  spread  their  nets.  The 
form  of  Stein  (as  it  used  to  be  written)  is  owed, 
according  to  Dunvan  (p.  228),  to  the  Flemings 
who  occupied  the  town  at  the  time  of  the  Conquest, 
and  were  the  more  welcome  as  Queen  Matilda's 
compatriots. 

The  Pavilion  Gardens  are  just  north  of  it ;  the 
Palace  was  constantly  being  built  and  then  pulled 
about  and  rebuilt,  with  the  result  that  it  does  not 
suggest  a  quarter  of  the  money  that  was  squan- 
dered on  it.  In  its  present  form  it  is  chiefly  the 
creation  of  John  Nash  (1752-1835),  who  in  Bucking- 
ham Palace  equipped  our  Metropolis  with  the 
ugliest  royal  residence  in  the  world,  and  who  is  let 
down  very  lightly  in  the  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography  with  the  remark :  "  His  style  lacks 


190  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

grandeur,  and  great  monotony  is  produced  by  his 
persistent  use  of  stucco."  The  Pavilion  is  the 
strangest  jumble  of  styles,  and  not  altogether  free 
from  the  temporary  exhibition  look  that  is  sug- 
gested by  the  name.  The  exterior  caricatures  the 
buildings  of  the  Indian  Moghals,  but  instead  of 
mosaic  and  marble  its  swelling  domes  and  minarets 
and  horse-shoe  arches  are  executed  chiefly  in  painted 
stucco.  The  eastern  facade  is,  however,  really 
impressive,  especially  when  twilight  is  kind  enough 
to  obscure  the  details ;  the  thin  fretwork  tracery 
of  the  colonnade  and  the  complicated  outlines, 
pleasantly  varied  by  the  thin  tapering  domes  that 
cover  the  large  Music  and  Banqueting  Rooms  at 
the  ends  (looking  as  if  they  had  burst  and  were 
simply  supported  by  their  central  poles)  give  an 
unfamiliar  and  far  from  unpleasing  general  effect. 
The  interior  is  very  richly  adorned  in  Chinese 
style  such  as  rather  justifies  the  remark  made  by 
the  Son  of  Heaven  to  the  English  Envoys,  Lord 
Macartney  in  1792,  Lord  Amherst  in  1816,  about 
the  western  barbarians  at  last  striving  to  imitate 
the  glories  of  the  Middle  Empire.  At  the  same 
time  the  general  effect  is  exceedingly  striking 
from  its  wealth  of  colour  and  gold,  its  huge  ferns 
and  leaves  and  dragons,  its  great  chandeliers  with 
painted  glass,  its  central  dome  blazoned  with  the 
sky  and  clouds  and  the  general  effect  of  Oriental 
splendour.  The  impression  is  to-day  rather  spoilt 
by  the  plain  deal  boards  of  the  flooring.  Nothing 
better  could  reasonably  have  been  expected,  some- 
thing far  worse  might  easily  have  come  about, 
from  the  architect  never  having  seen  even  a 
photograph  of  the  buildings  whose  effect  he  es- 
sayed to  reproduce.  The  detached  stone  gateway 
that  William  IV.  added  in  the  same  general  style, 


BRIGHTON  191 

as  the  northern  entrance  to  the  grounds,  is  the 
most  satisfactory  part  of  the  whole. 

The  Dome  and  the  buildings  that  adjoin,  mostly 
of  brick  and  iron,  were  designed  by  William 
Porden,  and  erected  in  1803-9.  With  a  fountain 
in  the  centre  and  horses  in  the  stalls  all  round, 
the  dome  itself  was  probably  far  more  effective 
than  fitted  as  an  assembly  room,  well  as  the  work 
has  been  done.  The  Picture  Gallery,  Museum,  and 
Public  Library  that  form  part  of  the  same  block 
have  recently  been  reconstructed  and  greatly 
improved.  The  former  contains  a  superb  mosaic 
portrait  of  George  IV.  executed  in  Rome  for  one 
of  the  Popes,  a  copy  of  a  picture  in  oils  by  Sir 
Thomas  Lawrence.  The  Museum  is  rather  of 
general  than  of  local  interest,  and  has  a  fine 
collection  of  Stone- Age  implements.  In  the  Dyke 
Road  is  the  Booth  Collection  of  British  Birds, 
bequeathed  to  the  town,  where  may  be  seen 
specimens  of  our  birds  beautifully  set  amid 
their  natural  surroundings  and  all  the  work  of 
one  man. 

In  1797  a  Brighton  miller  anticipated  American 
methods  by  moving  his  windmill  for  a  mile  across 
the  country  to  a  convenient  brow  of  hill  near 
Withdean;  no  less  than  thirty-six  yoke  of  oxen 
were  pressed  into  the  service,  and  it  must  have 
been  a  picturesque  scene.*  It  appears  to  have 
been  perfectly  successful.  We  get  an  interesting 
though  not  very  consistent  account  of  the  place 
in  Richard  Gough's  edition  of  Camden  (1806). 
"  Brighthelmstone,  from  a  flourishing  and  fortified 
town  now  greatly  reduced  by  the  incroachments 
of  the  sea,  is  of  a  square  form,  the  streets  almost 
at  right  angles  to  each  other,  and  situated  on  the 

*  Antiquarian  Chronicle,  July,  1882. 


192  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

South-east  side  of  a  gentle  hill.  ...  It  was  once 
fortified  with  walls,  of  which  traces  remain. 
Queen  Elizabeth  built  four  gates,  of  which  the 
Eastern  was  taken  down  lately ;  and  there  was 
a  flint  wall  to  the  sea  three  feet  thick  with  port- 
holes, which  with  the  circular  blockhouse  built 
by  the  townsmen  1558,  with  walls  eight  feet  thick, 
and  a  street  of  houses  next  the  sea,  are  all  under- 
mined by  the  sea,  which  has  gained  on  the  shore 
50  yards  within  the  memory  of  several  middle- 
aged  persons.  .  .  .  This  place  is  now  chiefly 
considerable  for  the  resort  of  company  for  sea- 
bathing, through  the  recommendation  of  Dr. 
Russel,  in  honour  of  whom  a  street  is  called  after 
his  name.  .  .  .  The  town  has  doubled  in  size  within 
20  years.  .  .  .  Packets  go  regularly  from  hence  to 
Dieppe  in  Normandy  in  time  of  peace.  The  bay 
being  open,  whenever  the  winds  make  it  trouble- 
some to  land  at  Brighthelmstone,  the  packets  can 
run  into  Shoreham  harbour  six  miles  distant 
(where  they  are  perfectly  safe  and  in  still  water) 
except  when  the  wind  blows  off  the  shore ;  in  that 
case  there  is  no  difficulty  in  getting  into  Bright- 
helmstone. This  is  by  far  the  cheapest  route  from 
London  to  Paris.  The  travelling  by  land  is  ninety 
miles  shorter,  the  extravagant  road  by  Dover  to 
Paris  is  avoided  and  a  much  finer  part  of  France 
is  seen.  Here  is  a  race-course  and  the  number 
of  inhabitants  amounted  in  1800  to  7,339." 

In  1811  Lord  Dudley  wrote  his  impressions, 
telling  us  that  in  Brighton  "  there  is  no  police 
at  all.  There  is  neither  Mayor,  Bailiff,  nor  Head- 
borough,  nor  in  short  any  vestige  of  municipal 
government.  The  nearest  justice  of  the  peace 
lives  at  Lewes,  nine  miles  off.  Yet  there  is  no 
place  so  quiet,  and  so  completely  free  from  crimes. 


BRIGHTON   PARISH   CHURCH. 
(As  originally  built.) 


To  face  p.  192. 


BRIGHTON  193 

The  doors  are  all  left  unbarred,  and  yet  I  never 
heard  of  anything  being  stolen."  It  was  not  till 
1854  that  Brighton  was  incorporated,  in  1889  it  was 
made  a  county  borough. 

The  ancient  custom  of  skipping  on  Good  Friday, 
or  "Long  Rope  Day,"  appears  to  be  more  commonly 
observed  by  small  Brightonians  than  by  the 
children  of  other  places  in  the  county,  and  as 
it  is  certainly  a  mediaeval  survival  this  is  an 
interesting  token  of  the  continuity  of  Brighton's 
life.  ,The  rope  is  a  reference  to  Judas  hanging 
himself.  Hemp  was  once  grown  in  Brighton  for 
fishing  purposes,  but  in  the  late  eighteenth  century 
two  new  streets  were  built  over  the  Hempshares 
and  named  from  the  old  inns  bearing  the  signs 
of  the  Black  Lion  and  the  Ship. 

The  gardens  that  occupy  the  central  valley  of 
the  town,  from  the  Old  Steine  to  the  triangular 
tree-circled  Recreation  Ground  called  the  Level, 
are  among  Brighton's  most  attractive  features. 
Overtopping  the  trees  of  one  of  them  rises  the 
tower  of  the  present  parish  church,  which  was 
built  by  the  architect  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament, 
Sir  Charles  Barry,  in  1824.  It  is  a  fine  building 
of  Portland  stone  in  the  style  of  the  transition 
from  Decorated  to  Perpendicular.  The  lower  part 
of  the  beautiful  tower  has  double  walls  with  a 
passage  between  them ;  the  outer  ones  support 
a  gallery  and  end  with  turrets  and  flying  buttresses, 
it  seems  a  curious  and  rather  a  pointless  arrange- 
ment, but  it  used  to  be  greatly  admired.  The  nave 
and  aisles  are  separated  by  clustered  pillars  and 
vaulted  throughout,  but  all  in  plaster.  A  large 
and  very  splendid  new  chancel,  designed  by  Somers 
Clarke  in  the  early  Tudor  style,  has  replaced  the 
original  apse.  The  interior  is  rich  in  memorials, 

13 


194  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

including  a  rood  pillar  and  a  pulpit  to  the  young 
soldier  to  whom  this  work  is  dedicated.  In  a 
community  that  owed  its  existence  to  fishing  the 
dedication  of  this  church  to  St.  Peter  might  appear 
the  very  summit  of  decorous  propriety,  but  such 
it  did  not  seem  to  Horsfield,  the  Presbyterian 
historian  of  the  county,  who  rather  petulantly 
and  irrelevantly  comments,  "Now  that  the  mum- 
meries of  Popery  are  avowedly  condemned  by  all 
enlightened  Christians,  and  the  idolatry  of  the 
mass  and  the  absurdity  of  transubstantiation  itself, 
is  clearly  seen  by  all  Protestant  worshippers  to 
be  not  more  discordant  with  Christian  verity  than 
is  the  invocation  of  saints.  Why  the  names  of 
our  churches  are  to  perpetuate  the  remembrance 
of  Popish  legends  and  tales  of  superstition,  we  leave 
to  be  determined  by  theological  jEdipuses." 

Brighton  has  a  good  many  modern  Gothic 
churches  of  interest,  in  fact  the  whole  course  of 
the  development  of  the  revived  style  may  be 
studied  in  outline  from  examples  within  the  town. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  ecclesiastically,  from 
having  been  the  scene  of  the  labours  of  F.  W. 
Robertson  (Holy  Trinity),  is,  however,  quite  devoid 
of  any  architectural  beauty.  How  so  large  a  place 
contrives  to  flourish  and  increase  without  any 
considerable  industries  is  really  difficult  to  explain ; 
the  chief  employer  of  labour  is  the  Municipality, 
which  manages  its  own  electric  trams;  the  next 
is  the  Railway,  which  has  considerable  shops  in 
Brighton.  But  undoubtedly  one  great  resource 
is  the  large  number  of  schools,  both  public  and 
private.  They  are  not  a  novelty ;  an  old  Brighton 
worthy  was  John  Grover,  who  lived  between  1677 
and  1752,  and  was  Quaker,  shepherd-boy,  maltster, 
schoolmaster,  and  mathematician.  Here  is  a  sample 


BRIGHTON  195 

of  the  kind  of  knotty  problem   he   used   to    set 
his  boys — 


1  When  first  the  marriage  knott  was  Ty'd,  Betwixt  my  wife 

and  mee 
My  age  did  hers  as  far  exceed,  as  three  times  three  doth 

three, 
But  when  Ten  years  and  half  ten  years,  we  man  and  wife 

had  been 

Her  age  came  up  as  near  to  mine  as  eight  is  to  sixteen 
Come  quickly  then  and  Tell  I  pray,  what  was  our  age,  the 

marriage  day.'' 


From  the  diary  of  another  schoolmaster,  one 
Walter  Gale  of  Mayfield,  by  no  means  a  prac- 
titioner of  all  the  virtues,  we  have  the  following 
rather  ill-natured  reference.  "The  rain  clearing 
off  at  three  o'clock,  I  set  out  for  Brighthelm- 
stone,  passing  through  Southover,  but  being 
advanced  on  the  hills,  the  rain  returned,  and 
drove  me  for  shelter  under  a  thin  hawthorn  hedge, 
and  I  was  obliged  to  return  to  Grover's,  where 
I  drank  tea,  and  discoursed  merrily,  but  innocently, 
with  his  wife,  notwithstanding  which,  Grover  was 
so  indiscreet  as  to  show  some  distaste  at  it,  and 
to  have  great  difficulty  to  keep  his  temper."  Gale 
was  dismissed  from  his  schoolmastership  in  1771, 
and  his  successor,  Benjamin  Hearnden,  was 
extremely  determined  to  do  better,  so  put  the 
following  advertisement  into  the  Lewes  Journal 
(p.  278)  for  July  20th  of  that  year.  It  is  an  in- 
teresting side-light  on  the  education  of  the  day. 
"  Parents  may  divest  themselves  of  the  appre- 
hensions often  attendant  on  sending  their  Children 
to  Boarding  schools  'that  proper  care  is  not  taken 
of  them,'  as  they  may  be  assured  to  the  contrary  ; 


196  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

and  that  the  greatest  tenderness  and  endearments 
are  used  instead  of  severity  and  unnecessary 
Constraint ;  and  the  utmost  pains  taken  to 
improve  them,  as  the  imaginary  Difficulties  young 
Minds  are  apt  to  think  will  attend  their  progress 
in  learning  are  removed,  all  Perplexities  and 
Obscurities  extirpated,  and  the  old  rugged  and 
tremendous  Road  (by  many  trod  with  Fear  and 
trembling)  is  disused,  and  a  new  one  perfectly 
smooth  and  easy  substituted  wherein  the  duty  of 
the  school  from  being  irksome  and  laborious  is 
rendered  pleasant  and  recreative.  His  Terms  are 
THIRTEEN  GUINEAS  per  Annum,  Washing,  and 
Mending  Linen  and  Stockings  included." 

Brighton  College  was  founded  in  1848  to  take 
its  place  among  the  Public  Schools  ;  the  original 
buildings  of  flint  and  stone  were  designed  by 
Sir  Gilbert  Scott.  A  new  block  with  a  beautiful 
gateway  has  been  erected  by  one  of  many  eminent 
men  trained  in  the  institution,  T.  G.  Jackson, 
whose  work  at  Oxford  is  well  known.  There  is 
a  very  pleasant  and  well-shaded  court  between 
the  two  blocks.  After  many  vicissitudes  the 
school  has  entered  on  a  new  era  of  prosperity, 
chiefly  from  the  devotion  of  the  old  boys.  Among 
masters  who  have  made  a  name,  very  promi- 
nent was  the  immensely  respected  E.  J.  Marshall, 
who  in  1859  founded  the  Grammar  School,  for 
which  a  large  new  building  is  being  erected  by 
the  Education  authorities.  Among  the  nume- 
rous private  schools  one  of  the  oldest  and  most 
successful  is  Windlesham  House,  maintained  for 
more  than  three-quarters  of  a  century  by  four 
generations  of  the  Maiden  family.  Its  chapel  is 
built  largely  of  the  materials  of  the  old  Carfax 
Church  at  Oxford. 


BRIGHTON  197 

One  of  the  great  landmarks  of  old  Brighton 
was  the  Chain  Pier,  erected  on  the  principle  of 
a  suspension  bridge  in  1822  by  Captain  Browne, 
R.N.  The  timbers  were  thickly  studded  with  nails, 
the  pier-head,  80  feet  by  40  feet,  was  paved 
with  flagstones,  the  whole  effect  was  far  more 
agreeable  than  that  of  more  modern  structures. 
By  the  great  storm  of  December  4,  1896,  it  was 
entirely  destroyed,  and  the  whole  front  was 
strewn  with  wreckage  more  complete  than  would 
have  been  produced  by  artillery  fire,  if  one  may 
judge  by  the  damage  visible  at  Lady  smith  just 
after  the  siege.  Brighton  still  presents  her  best 
side  to  the  sea,  and  by  far  the  most  impressive 
view  of  the  place  is  from  the  deck  of  a  steamer ; 
the  long  line  of  houses  fronting  the  Esplanade 
from  Aldrington  to  Kemp  Town,  and  the  tier 
after  tier  of  large  buildings  that  cover  the  Down- 
side just  above,  produce  an  effect  that  in  its  own 
way  is  hardly  surpassed  in  the  world.  A  very 
wide  view  of  the  inland  parts  is  to  be  had  from  the 
Lewes  Viaduct  over  the  central  valley ;  a  polite 
and  delightful  Frenchman  who  had  just  landed 
at  Newhaven,  and  was  outside  his  own  country 
for  the  first  time,  after  gazing  down  on  the  slates 
and  chimneys,  sized  it  all  up  pretty  well  by  ex- 
claiming to  the  present  writer,  "  Ah !  c'est  tres 
pratique."  In  1839  was  laid  with  Masonic  honours 
the  first  stone  of  the  Roman  triumphal  arch  by 
which  the  railway  crosses  New  England  Hill;  it 
still  exists,  but  has  been  enlarged  to  a  regular 
tunnel. 

Literary  associations  of  Brighton  of  one  kind 
or  another  are  innumerable.  Dr.  Johnson  visited 
it.  Not  a  few  men  of  eminence  in  philosophy, 
journalism,  or  literature,  such  as  ^Horace  Smith, 


198  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

Herbert  Spencer,  Edmund  Yates,  or  Sir  James 
Knowles,  have  made  the  place  at  any  rate  one 
of  their  homes,  and  have  contributed  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  town.  Among  native  Brightonian 
writers  a  very  interesting  figure  is  George  Fleming 
Richardson  (1796  P-1848),  who,  entirely  self- 
educated,  contrived  to  qualify  himself  for 
geological  work  at  the  British  Museum.  His 
poetry  has  hardly  received  the  recognition  that 
it  seems  to  deserve. 

"  The  Nautilus  and  the  Ammonite 

Were  launch'd  in  storm  and  strife, 
Bach  sent  to  float,  in  its  tiny  boat, 
On  the  wide  wild  sea  of  life. 

And  each  could  swim  on  the  Ocean's  brim, 

And  anon  its  sails  could  furl, 
And  sink  to  sleep,  in  the  great  sea-deep, 

In  a  palace  all  of  pearl." 

Though  separately  incorporated  and  possessing 
a  fine  Town  Hall  of  its  own,  built  of  terra-cotta 
and  bricks  from  Sussex  potteries  at  Keymer,  Hove 
shares  most  of  the  traditions  of  Brighton ;  indeed, 
in  possessing  the  County  Cricket  Ground,  where 
C.  B.  Fry  and  the  present  Jam  of  Navanagar 
(K.  S.  Ranjitsinghi)  did  so  much  to  raise  Sussex  in 
the  national  game,  it  contains  for  many  the  most 
interesting  spot  in  the  two  towns.  There  are  two 
beautiful  Parks,  one  on  the  Downs  in  the  direction 
of  Blatchington,  the  other  the  old  St.  Anne's  Well 
Gardens,  where  trees  flourish  luxuriantly  on  a 
small  extent  of  clay  which  overlies  the  chalk. 
The  old  parish  church  has  hopelessly  spoilt  arcades 
dating  from  a  century  after  the  Conquest ;  the  new 
one  is  a  superb  building  designed  by  Pearson  in  the 


BRIGHTON  199 

Early  Decorated  style,  all  of  Sussex  stone,  with 
beautiful  clustered  pillars  and  moulded  arches. 
Some  of  the  finest  residential  streets  are  in  Hove, 
and  it  was  here  that  Edward  VII.  stayed  as  a 
rule  when  he  restored  the  royal  patronage  that 
ended  for  a  time  when  Queen  Victoria  sold  the 
Pavilion.  While  Brighton  stands  upon  the  chalk 
Downs,  the  greater  part  of  Hove  is  built  on  low 
ground  at  the  very  end  of  the  maritime  plain, 
which  has  been  getting  narrower  all  the  way 
from  the  Hampshire  border,  and  here  comes  to 
an  end. 

At  Preston,  on  the  border  of  the  Park  that  is 
now  the  property  of  the  town,  stand  together  the 
old  manor-house  and  the  little  Early  English 
church.  The  latter  consists  of  small  tower,  nave, 
and  chancel ;  it  is  late  in  the  style  and  plain,  but 
with  three  sedilia  on  different  levels  and  a  piscina. 
The  altar  is  formed  by  an  old  panelled  tomb  of 
the  Shirley  family.  A  recent  fire  greatly  damaged 
the  frescoes  that  represent,  among  other  subjects, 
the  murder  of  Becket.  Buried  here  is  Francis 
Cheynell,  the  Puritan  divine,  chiefly  remembered 
for  his  disgraceful  behaviour  at  the  open  grave 
of  William  Chilling  worth,  who  in  1638  wrote  The 
Religion  of  Protestants  a  Safe  Way  of  Salvation,  a 
work  which  had  not  the  good  fortune  to  meet  with 
Cheynell's  approval  on  account  of  its  appeal  to 
human  reason.  Chillingworth  had  been  at  Arundel 
during  the  siege,  and  in  a  very  minor  and  in- 
effectual way  had  tried  to  play  the  part  of  Archi- 
medes at  Syracuse,  not  with  burning  glasses, 
however,  but  by  constructing  certain  unsuccessful 
"machines  after  the  Roman  method."  On  his 
death-bed  at  Chichester  Cheynell  pestered  him 
as  to  his  religious  views,  and  to  tell  the  story  in 


200  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

his  own  words :  "  When  I  found  him  pretty  hearty 
one  day,  I  desired  him  to  tell  me  whether  he  con- 
ceived that  a  man  living  and  dying  a  Turk,  Papist, 
or  Socinian  could  be  saved.  All  the  answer  I  could 
gain  from  him  was,  that  he  did  not  absolve  them, 
and  would  not  condemn  them.  I  was  much  dis- 
pleased with  the  answer  upon  divers  reasons." 
When  Chillingworth  was  buried  in  the  cloisters 
of  Chichester  Cathedral,  where  his  tablet  may 
still  be  seen  (1644),  Cheynell  flung  after  the  body 
into  the  grave  a  copy  of  the  book  he  disliked, 
bawling  out,  "Get  thee  gone  then,  thou  cursed 
booke,  which  has  seduced  so  many  precious  souls ; 
get  thee  gone,  thou  corrupt  rotten  booke,  earth  to 
earth  and  dust  to  dust ;  get  thee  gone  into  the 
place  of  rottenness,  that  thou  mayest  rot  with  thy 
author,  and  see  corruption."  A  little  farther  out 
on  the  London  Road  is  the  Down  village  of 
Patcham,  with  an  Early  Norman  church  over 
whose  plain  and  massive  chancel  arch  is  a  later 
fresco,  very  well  preserved,  representing  the  Last 
Judgment.  The  tower  is  Early  English,  but,  like  the 
rest  of  the  church  (except  the  new  aisle),  covered 
with  Roman  cement.  In  the  chancel  is  a  very 
crude  tablet  with  two  nude  figures  and  Ionic 
pilasters  to  Richard  Shelley,  1594.  Patcham  Place, 
one  of  the  seats  of  the  family,  stands  on  low 
ground  under  a  hanging  wood  on  the  Down-side. 
The  original  date  stone  ("  1567  I.A.S."  apparently, 
but  it  is  much  decayed),  brick- vaulted  cellars,  and 
old  beams  remain,  but  the  house  was  remodelled 
in  the  eighteenth  century.  For  a  time  it  belonged 
to  the  Stapleys  (who  sold  it  in  1700) ;  one  of  them, 
Anthony,  played  a  leading  part  in  the  Civil  War, 
being  Governor  of  Chichester  and  a  Regicide.  There 
is  an  ancient  round  dove-cot  near  the  church. 


BRIGHTON  201 

By  the  Ladies'  Mile  is  a  delightful  riding  track 
over  the  Down  turf  to  the  upper  gate  of  Stanmer 
Park  (p.  223).  A  little  to  the  south,  near  the  almost 
disused  Brighton  and  Ditchling  road,  in  a  district 
now  consecrated  to  golf,  is  Hollingbury,  where  is 
a  very  well-preserved  oval  camp  containing  an 
area  of  over  seven  acres  and  belonging  apparently 
to  the  Bronze  Age,  many  of  whose  implements 
were  found  there  by  Professor  Boyd  Dawkins. 
Close  to  the  Brighton  Racecourse  is  the  largely 
obliterated  White  Hawk  Camp,  whose  mound  was 
doubled  on  the  exposed  sides. 

Due  south,  on  the  beginning  of  the  chalk  cliffs, 
is  Kemp  Town,  the  eastern  part  of  Brighton, 
founded  1821-30  by  T.  R.  Kemp,  of  Ovingdean. 
The  best  known  of  the  family,  Charles  Earner 
Kempe,  famous  for  his  stained  glass,  is  buried  in 
the  family  vault  at  Ovingdean,  but  his  own  home 
was  at  Lindfield,  where  he  built  a  magnificent 
mansion  in  the  Elizabethan  style.  He  was  an 
extremely  interesting  man,  and  an  enthusiastic 
admirer  of  days  gone  by,  carrying  this  feeling  so 
far  as  frequently  to  come  down  to  dinner  in  knee 
breeches  and  silk  stockings,  the  sort  of  costume 
that  a  Tudor  courtier  might  have  worn.  The  cliffs 
below  Kemp  Town  were  faced  with  masonry  in 
1838,  and  winter  gardens  have  been  provided  ex- 
tending to  the  Aquarium.  Just  beyond  the  town, 
at  Black  Rock,  is  a  splendid  section  of  the  dirty- 
looking,  chalky  conglomerate  full  of  stones  called 
the  Coombe  Rock  or  Brighton  Elephant  Beds,  from 
the  fossils  of  bones  and  teeth  it  contains.  It  rests 
on  a  raised  beach  of  water-worn  flints  with 
boulders  of  chalk  and  other  rocks.  The  solid  chalk 
below  forms  the  floor  of  the  beach  for  some  dis- 
tance ;  it  is  full  of  little  holes,  in  whose  salt  water 


202  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

seaweed  trails  and  crabs  swim  about.  Sea  cabbage 
and  wallflower  grow,  but  not  profusely,  on  the 
cliffs,  which,  farther  east,  are  themselves  composed 
of  solid  chalk,  and  extend,  with  a  break  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Ouse,  all  the  way  to  Beachy  Head. 
Magnificently  situated  above  them,  and  looking 
straight  over  the  Channel,  are  the  splendid  build- 
ings of  Roedean  School,  an  institution  for  girls  on 
the  lines  of  the  great  public  schools,  founded  by 
the  Misses  Lawrence.  Its  growth  has  been  really 
extraordinary,  and  a  branch  has  been  found  neces- 
sary as  far  off  as  Johannesburg.  The  facade  is  in 
Tudor  style  modified,  with  large  gables  and  small 
windows,  recessed  in  the  centre  to  form  a  court 
with  clock- tower  over  the  entrance  and  another 
tower  each  side.  Among  the  buildings  at  the  back 
is  a  chapel  with  cloister  court  and  fountain  in  the 
style  of  the  Italian  Renaissance  (Simpson,  archi- 
tect). No  other  educational  buildings  in  Brighton 
can  be  compared  with  these,  and  the  gardens  are 
as  pleasant  as  they  could  be  without  trees  and  in 
so  bleak  a  situation. 

Ovingdean  is  principally  known  from  the  in- 
teresting events  that  Harrison  Ainsworth  thought 
might  have  happened  and  duly  chronicled  in 
Ovingdean  Grange.  It  is  a  quiet  Down  village 
about  a  mile  inland  that,  on  the  whole,  is  wonder- 
fully little  affected  by  the  close  proximity  of  the 
town.  The  church  seems  to  be  dedicated  to  St. 
Wulfram,  an  eighth-century  Archbishop  of  Sens, 
who  became  a  missionary  in  Friesland,  and  lost 
the  opportunity  of  baptizing  King  Radbod  at  the 
very  font  by  tactlessly  telling  him  his  unchristened 
ancestors  were  in  hell.  It  is  a  small  building,  with 
nave  and  chancel  of  early  Norman  date,  partly  of 
Roman  brick ;  the  original  windows,  deeply  splayed 


BRIGHTON  203 

within,  are  only  about  four  inches  wide,  and  seem 
to  have  been  made  with  an  eye  to  defence.  The 
narrow  little  chancel  arch  has  been  supplemented 
by  another  opening  each  side.  In  the  Early  Eng- 
lish period  were  added  a  tower,  which  is  extremely 
low,  and  a  south  aisle  which  has  disappeared ;  but 
the  foundations  were  discovered  in  May,  1907, 
there  being  a  puzzling  little  chamber,  narrower 
than  the  rest  and  very  awkwardly  joined,  at  the 
east  end.  The  church  has  also  been  lightened  by 
the  insertion  of  some  lancets. 

Away  over  the  Downs,  in  a  lonely  position,  is 
the  hamlet  of  Balsdean,  with  a  thatched  chapel 
that  forms  a  stable,  but  retains  an  Early  English 
doorway  and  a  splayed  lancet.  No  proper  road 
goes  near  it,  but  a  rough  track  leads  down  to  the 
sea  at  Rottingdean,  where  a  valley  furrows  the 
cliffs,  but  not  right  down  to  the  beach. 

In  the  manor  of  Rottingdean,  held  in  Domes- 
day by  one  Hugh,  of  William  of  Warenne,  the 
widow  is  entitled  to  widow's  bench  of  the  whole 
of  the  land  (not  merely  one-third),  while  after  her 
death,  by  the  custom  of  Borough  English,  it 
descends  to  the  youngest  son.  This  arrangement 
is  particularly  a  Sussex  institution,  being  found 
in  something  like  one  hundred  and  forty  of  her 
manors,  mostly  in  the  Rape  of  Lewes.  T.  W.  Shore 
(Origin  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Race)  believed  it  to 
have  been  derived  from  a  Slavic  element  among 
the  original  Saxon  immigrants,  and  even  con- 
nected the  mer,  which  forms  a  part  of  many 
Sussex  place  names  (Keymer,  Stanmer,  Ringmer, 
and  so  on),  with  the  Russian  word  mir  for  an 
agricultural  community.  That  a  Slavic  element 
existed  among  the  founders  of  South  Saxony  is 
likely  enough,  but  hardly  in  such  proportions  as 


204  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

the  theory  would  imply.  Professor  Vinogradoff, 
himself  a  Slav,  points  out  that  the  custom  savours 
rather  of  the  mobility  of  early  conditions  with 
their  opportunities  for  new  settlements  in  the 
wilds  and  of  the  greater  importance  of  movable 
property  represented  by  cattle  and  sheep  than  of 
land.  In  countries  just  opened  up  at  the  present 
day  the  stock  and  equipment  of  a  farm  may  easily 
be  more  valuable  than  the  land. 

The  church  is  dedicated  to  St.  Margaret,  not  the 
wife  of  Malcolm  Canmore,  whose  shrine  was  at 
Dunfermline,  but  the  half-mythical  virgin  of 
Antioch  who  refused  to  marry  a  heathen  king 
and  got  put  into  prison  for  her  pains.  She  was 
swallowed  whole  by  a  dragon,  but  greediness  was 
punished,  as  it  so  often  is — a  cross  in  the  hands  of 
the  saint  acted  as  a  sword ;  the  vile  beast  was  slain 
and  the  virtuous  virgin  was  delivered,  but  not  for 
long  was  she  to  be  deprived  of  the  martyr's  crown. 
It  is  an  interesting  Norman  building  entirely  re- 
constructed in  the  Early  English  period.  Three 
steps  lead  up  from  the  nave  to  the  tower,  three 
more  to  the  chancel,  and  yet  three  others  to  the 
altar — a  striking  arrangement,  which  is  facilitated 
by  the  slope  of  the  ground.  The  tower  has  three 
lancets,  one  over  the  other,  in  both  north  and  south 
walls.  The  three  eastern  lancets,  with  detached 
shafts,  have  stained  glass  with  figures  of  the  three 
archangels,  Raphael,  Michael,  and  Gabriel,  by  Sir 
Edward  Burne-Jones,  who  also  designed  other 
windows  in  the  church,  including  a  figure  of  St. 
Margaret.  They  are  magnificent  pieces  of  work 
both  as  to  drawing  and  colour  ;  but  Kempe's  glass, 
though  it  is  hardly  up  to  that  of  Burne-Jones  from 
the  point  of  view  of  pure  art,  is  certainly  much 
more  suited  to  be  placed  in  ancient  buildings  from 


BRIGHTON  205 

its  genuine  mediaeval  feeling.  At  the  west  end  of 
the  church  Burne- Jones  himself  lies  at  rest,  and 
close  to  him  sleeps  William  Black.  The  famous 
novelist,  who  won  his  reputation  mainly  by  his 
power  of  depicting  attractive  and  lovable,  above 
all  intensely  human,  female  characters,  was  born 
at  Glasgow  in  1841,  and  always  retained  the  most 
lively  affection  for  Scotland,  whose  scenery  he  so 
splendidly  described.  From  1878  till  his  death  in 
1898  his  home  was  Pas  ton  House,  Kemp  Town,  and 
his  favourite  walk  when  there  was  along  the  cliffs 
to  Rottingdean.  The  old  Chain  Pier  he  found  an 
agreeable  promenade,  and  used  to  compose  his 
works  pacing  up  and  down  it.  One  of  his  best 
novels,  Sabina  Zembra,  is  largely  devoted  to  a 
description  of  Brighton  life.  His  visible  memorial 
is  a  lighthouse  on  Mull,  in  his  native  land,  but  the 
years  which  he  spent  in  Brighton  have  done  much 
to  enrich  the  associations  of  the  town. 


XI    The   South  Downs 


NOWN  over  the  English-speaking  world 
for  their  excellent  breed  of  sheep, 
admired  by  all  who  have  seen  them 
for  the  peculiar  beauty  of  their  smooth  rolling 
outlines,  closely  associated  with  the  folk-lore 
of  the  county,  the  South  Downs  form  what  is  on  the 
whole  the  most  characteristic  of  Sussex  scenery. 
Owing  to  the  tilting  of  the  strata  of  the  chalk  they 
descend  to  the  south  by  a  very  gentle  slope  (where 
they  have  not  been  eaten  into  cliffs  by  the  sea),  but 
present  a  regular  wall  to  the  north.  Thus  when 
seen  from  the  Weald  they  are  given  credit  for 
much  more  than  their  real  height,  and  from  their 
steepness  and  smooth  contours  they  seem  more 
impressive  the  nearer  they  are  approached,  while 
their  character  is  so  different  from  anything  else- 
where that  they  still  appear  as  a  magnificent 
mountain  range  to  those  who  have  seen  the  Alps 
or  the  Rockies. 

206 


THE  SOUTH  DOWNS  207 

The  short,  springy  grass  that  clothes  the  thin 
earth  which  covers  the  chalk  is  not  the  least  of 
their  charms,  and  one  may  walk  over  them  without 
fatigue  for  much  longer  distances  than  almost 
anywhere  else.  The  delightful  open  pastures  of 
the  Downs  supported  from  very  ancient  days 
a  large  population,  who  have  left  us  a  priceless 
heritage  in  the  innumerable  earthworks  that  true 
Sussexians  love.  Fortunately  when  it  became 
possible  to  occupy  "  the  wooded  dim  blue  good- 
ness of  the  Weald,"  with  its  far  more  fertile 
soil,  the  uplands  were  largely  abandoned  to  the 
sheep  and  their  shepherds.  Villages  actually 
on  the  Downs  are  few  and  small,  and  except 
where  seaside  or  riverside  towns  spread  over 
their  slopes  the  population  of  the  chalk  hills  is 
scanty. 

The  Downs  have  inspired  a  number  of  poems,  of 
which  Kipling's  (p.  257)  is  by  far  the  best.  Hilaire 
Belloc's  is  attractive  as  expressing  what  many 
Sussexians  have  felt,  though  most  of  them  we  may 
hope  have  not  so  failed  to  appreciate  the  spirit  of 
other  parts  of  the  country. 


'When  I  am  living  in  the  Midlands 

That  are  sodden  and  unkind, 
I  light  my  lamp  in  the  evening, 

My  work  is  left  behind ; 
And  the  great  hills  of  the  South  Country 

Come  back  into  my  mind. 

The  great  hills  of  the  South  Country 

They  stand  along  the  sea ; 
And  it's  there  walking  in  the  high  woods 

That  I  could  wish  to  be, 
And  the  men  that  were  boys  when  I  was  a  boy 

Walking  along  with  me." 


208  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

Robert  Bloomfield's  verses  possess,  as  W.  E.  A. 
Axon  says,  "  A  pleasant  natural  enthusiasm." 

"Are  these  the  famed,  the  brave  South  Downs, 
That  like  a  chain  of  pearls  appear  ; 
Their  pale  green  sides  and  graceful  crowns 
To  freedom,  thought,  and  peace,  how  dear  1 
To  freedom,  for  no  fence  is  seen  ; 
To  thought,  for  silence  smooths  the  way  ; 
To  peace,  for  o'er  the  boundless  green 
Unnumbered  flocks  and  shepherds  stray. 

Now  ;    now  we've  gained  the  utmost  height : 
Where  shall  we  match  the  vale  below? 
The  Weald  of  Sussex,  glorious  sight, 
Old  Chankbury,  from  the  tufted  brow." 

The  lines  by  Charlotte  Smith  have  a  genuine 
pathos  that  makes  a  strong  appeal  to  those  who 
know  the  circumstances  of  her  life  (p.  100). 

*'  Ah !    hills  beloved !   where  once  a  happy  child, 
Your  beechen  shades,  your  turf,  your  flowers  among, 
I  wove  your  bluebells  into  garlands  wild, 
And  woke  your  echoes  with  my  artless  song. 
Ah !   hills  beloved !   your  turf,  your  flowers  remain ; 
But  can  they  peace  to  this  sad  breast  restore, 
For  one  poor  moment  sooth  the  sense  of  pain, 
And  teach  a  broken  heart  to  throb  no  more? 
And  you,  Aruna,  in  the  vale  below ; 
As  to  the  sea  your  limpid  waves  you  bear, 
Can  you  one  kind  Lethean  cup  bestow, 
To  drink  a  long  oblivion  to  my  care  ? 
Ah  no ! — when  all,  e'en  hope's  last  ray  is  gone, 
There's  no  oblivion  but  in  death  alone." 

Only  the  far  east  of  Sussex  is  wholly  beyond  the 
influence  of  the  Downs,  for  the  hill  that  walls  in 
their  horizon  towards  the  south  has  always 
impressed  the  dwellers  in  the  Weald,  and  it  is 


THE   SOUTH  DOWNS  209 

largely  on  the  chalk  uplands  and  in  the  villages 
that  nestle  under  their  slopes  that  what  is  most 
characteristic  of  bygone  Sussex  is  to  be  found.  It 
is  true  that  few  have  acted  on  the  advice  of  the 
old  villager  :  "  Mind  you  doan't  never  have  nothing 
in  no  way  to  do  with  none  of  their  new-fangled 
schemes,"  but  the  ancient  remoteness  of  South 
Saxony  is  by  no  means  altogether  a  thing  of  the 
past.  Once  get  away  from  bow-windows  and 
slates,  among  the  timber-framed  and  stone  slab  or 
thatch-roofed  cottages  of  remote  Sussex  villages, 
and  one  is  farther  off  from  the  restless  turmoil  of 
modern  life  than  almost  anywhere  else. 

But  the  old  order  is  rapidly  passing  away  even 
where  a  generation  ago  the  process  had  hardly 
begun.  In  1884  wrote  Rev.  J.  Coker  Egerton 
(Sussex  Folk  and  Sussex  Ways)  :  "  People  who  are 
wont  nowadays  to  look  to  the  large  centres  of 
commerce  for  almost  anything  they  want,  may  be 
surprised  to  know  how  comparatively  independent 
of  outside  help  many  of  our  country  parishes  were 
fifty  or  sixty  years  ago.  Within  the  recollection  of 
many  persons  still  alive  we  grew  flax,  bleached  it, 
carded  it,  spun,  and  wove  it  at  home.  In  many  of 
our  cottages  there  are  yet  to  be  found  sheets, 
table-cloths,  and  other  articles  of  linen  which  seem 
to  defy  the  power  of  time.  Doubtless  they  are 
now  kept  more  as  curiosities  than  for  use  ;  still 
they  have  borne  an  amount  of  wear  and  tear 
which  is  certainly  not  expected  of  more  modern 
goods.  We  had  our  own  hatter  within  my  own 
memory,  though  when  I  knew  him  he  had  ceased 
to  work  at  his  trade.  His  productions  had  the 
character  of  being  everlasting."  Ploughing  with 
large  black  oxen  may  still  though  very  rarely 
be  seen  on  the  Downs,  here  and  there  an  aged 

14 


210  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

countryman  yet  wears  a  smock,  the  sails  of  a  few 
windmills  are  yet  blown  round,  but  as  a  rule  it  is 
rather  in  the  minds  of  our  people  than  in  what  is 
more  apparent  to  the  passing  motorist  that  the 
traditions  of  the  past  yet  live. 

J.  J.  Hissey  has  written :  "  Sleepy  or  stupid  the 
Sussex  folk  are  not,  according  to  my  experience, 
though  quiet  mannered  and  slow  of  speech — 
perhaps  more  given  to  thinking  than  talking,  for 
which  I  esteem  them."  This  is  well  illustrated  by 
a  story  that  Henry  Maiden,  of  Windlesham  House 
School,  Brighton,  used  to  tell  against  himself. 
Once  on  the  Downs  he  got  into  conversation  with 
an  old  Sussexian  who  was  digging  flints. 

"  *  Now,  my  good  man,'  he  remarked,  *  I  dare  say 
you  think  these  flints  grow  here  where  you  find 
them.' 

"  '  I  doan't  think  nothing  at  all  about  it,  I  knows 
they  does,'  was  the  reply. 

"  '  Well,  then,  you  keep  a  flint  on  your  chimney- 
piece  through  the  year  and  see  how  much  it  has 
grown  by  the  end  of  the  time.'  " 

"  The  old  man  was  somewhat  impatient  over  the 
challenge,  and  rather  tartly  rejoined  :  *  Well,  you 
put  a  tater  on  your  chimney  and  see  how  much 
it  grows  there' " 

The  following,  again  to  quote  J.  C.  Egerton, 
may  be  rude  and  may  even  verge  on  being 
libellous  to  the  honoured  rulers  of  our  land,  but 
stupid  it  is  certainly  not.  "  Many  years  ago " 
(will  the  reader  kindly  notice  the  approximate 
date)  "I  heard  from  a  parishioner  an  opinion  of 
politics  which,  whoever  was  its  author,  had  in 
my  ears  a  true  Sussex  ring  about  it,  and  which 
I  felt  to  be  no  mere  secondhand  cynicism,  but  the 
genuine  belief,  however  much  mistaken,  of  some 


THE  SOUTH  DOWNS  211 

dweller  in  the  country,  who,  thinking  for  himself, 
had  come  to  doubt  the  existence  of  political 
honesty. 

"  *  Well/  he  said,  '  in  my  opinion,  politics  are 
about  like  this:  I've  got  a  sow  in  my  yard  with 
twelve  little  uns,  and  they  little  uns  can't  all 
feed  at  once,  because  there  isn't  room  enough, 
so  I  shut  six  on  'em  out  of  the  yard  while  t'other 
six  be  sucking,  and  the  six  as  be  shut  out,  they 
just  do  make  a  hem  of  a  noise  till  they  be  let 
in,  and  then  they  be  just  as  quiet  as  the  rest.' 

"I  have  heard  another  parishioner  expressing 
himself  much  to  the  same  effect,  when  he  used 
to  say — 

"'I  be  a  miller,  and  I've  got  rats,  and  I  keep 
cats,  and  one  day  I  looks  into  a  place  under  my 
mill,  and  there  I  sees  cats  and  rats  all  feeding 
together  out  of  one  trough  at  my  expense." 

As  a  rule,  however,  our  Sussex  people  of  an 
older  day  took  little  interest  in  national  politics — 
Heaven  knows  they  didn't  miss  much.  The  late 
Chancellor  Parish  discovered  from  careful  inquiry 
that  in  his  parish  of  Selmeston,  some  half-century 
ago,  out  of  a  total  population  of  about  four 
hundred,  only  fourteen  had  ever  heard  of  Mr. 
Gladstone.  The  same  writer  (in  his  Dictionary  of 
the  Sussex  Dialect)  gives  the  following  account  of 
the  impression  made  on  a  Sussex  villager  by 
another  Premier :  " '  I  never  see  one  of  these  here 
gurt  men  there's  s'much  talk  about  in  the  peapers, 
only  once,  and  that  was  up  at  Snuffle  Show  adunna- 
many  years  agoo.  Prime  Minister,  they  told  me 
he  was,  up  at  Lunnon ;  a  leetle,  lear,  miserable, 
skinny-looking  chap  as  ever  I  see.  "  Why!"  I  says, 
"  we  doan't  count  our  minister  to  be  much,  but 
he's  a  deal  primer-looking  than  what  yourn  be." ' " 


212  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

An  old  neighbour  recently  told  the  present  writer 
about  his  experiences  at  election  time :  "  There  was 
a  motor  down't  the  bottom  o'the  lane  an'  the 
gentleman  says  to  me,  'Who  be  ye  goin'  to  vote 
for?'  An'  I  says  I  voted  for  Mr.  Jones  last  time 
an'  I'm  goin'  to  vote  for  t'other  man  this  time, 
so's  I  can  say  I  had  a  vote  fr  each.  'All  right, 
then,'  he  says,  « jump  in ' ;  but  no !  I  doan't  like 
they  motors.  I  be  safer  on  my  pins." 

As  a  rule  good  temper  and  friendliness  charac- 
terise our  Sussex  people,  and  there  is  not  the  same 
tendency  in  Sussexians  of  mature  age  as  in  some 
who  had  better  be  nameless  to  jeer  at  other 
people's  misfortunes.  More  than  once  on  a  lonely 
road  the  writer  has  been  comforted  for  that  most 
aggravating  of  experiences,  a  punctured  bicycle 
tyre,  by  the  kindly  and  sympathetic  remarks  of 
the  rustics.  Just  now  and  then  the  opposite 
quality  appears,  and  an  old  washerwoman  in  a 
hamlet  just  beyond  the  district  treated  in  this 
book  had  to  be  remonstrated  with  for  her 
abominable  temper.  "Lor,  mum,"  she  rejoined, 
"  it  ain't  my  temper,  it's  the  tempers  I  do  meet,  and 
everywhere  I  go  it's  the  same."  People  from 
other  counties,  with  the  doubtful  exception  of 
Kent,  are  foreigners  in  Sussex,  and  by  no  means 
sure  of  a  welcome.  Chancellor  Parish  has  pre- 
served a  remark  about  a  woman  from  Lincolnshire 
to  the  effect  that  she  had  "such  a  good  notion 
of  work  that  you'd  never  find  out  but  what  she 
was  an  Englishwoman,  without  you  was  to  hear 
her  talk." 

The  following  story,  also  from  Chancellor  Parish, 
is  a  good  sample  of  the  Sussex  dialect,  and 
illustrates  the  belief  in  farisees  (or  fairies),  which 
is  being  rapidly  destroyed  by  modern  education; 


THE  SOUTH  DOWNS  213 

in  this  particular  case  they  were  most  disgracefully 
treated.  " '  I've  heard  my  feather  say,  that  when  he 
lived  over  the  hill,  there  was  a  carter  that  worked 
on  the  farm  along  wid  him,  and  no  one  couldn't 
think  how  t'was  that  this  here  man's  horses  looked 
so  much  better  than  what  any  one  else's  did. 
I've  heard  my  feather  say  that  they  was  that  fat 
that  they  couldn't  scarcely  get  about;  and  this 
here  carter  he  was  just  as  much  puzzled  as  what 
the  rest  was,  so  cardinley  he  laid  hisself  up  in  the 
staable  one  night,  to  see  if  he  could  find  the 
meaning  an't. 

" '  And  he  hadn't  been  there  very  long,  before 
these  here  liddle  farisees  they  crep  in  at  the  sink- 
hole;  in  they  crep,  one  after  another;  liddle  tiny 
bits  of  chaps  they  was,  and  each  an  'em  had  a 
liddle  sack  of  corn  on  his  back  as  much  as  ever  he 
could  carry.  Well !  in  they  crep,  on  they  gets,  up 
they  dims,  and  there  they  was,  just  as  busy 
feeding  these  here  horses ;  and  prensley  one  says 
to  t'other,  he  says,  "Puck,"  says  he,  "I  twets,  do 
you  twet?"  And  thereupon,  this  here  carter  he 
jumps  up  and  says,  "Dannel  ye,"  he  says,  "I'll 
make  ye  twet  afore  I've  done  wud  ye ! "  But 
before  he  could  get  anigh  'em  they  was  all  gone, 
every  one  an  'em. 

"  *  And  I've  heard  my  feather  say,  that  from  that 
day  forard  this  here  carter's  horses  fell  away,  till 
they  got  that  thin  and  poor  that  he  couldn't  bear 
to  be  seen  along  wid  'em,  so  he  took  and  went 
away,  for  he  couldn't  abear  to  see  hisself  no  longer ; 
and  nobody  ain't  seen  him  since.'" 

One  of  the  least  beautiful  of  the  landmarks  on 
the  Downs,  seen  far  and  wide  over  the  Weald, 
is  the  Dyke  Hotel.  Thither  from  Brighton  by 
road  or  rail  come  many  thousands  of  people  who 


THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

do  not  always  represent  either  the  brightest 
intelligence  or  the  highest  culture  of  the  Queen 
of  Watering  Places.  Insufficient  for  their  delecta- 
tion are  the  magnificent  view  and  all  the  varied 
archaeological  associations  of  the  spot,  and  so 
these  are  supplemented  by  other  attractions  which 
would  be  very  much  in  place  elsewhere.  If  the 
ancient  camp  be  still  haunted  by  the  spirits  of 
those  that  dug  its  defences  millenniums  ago,  it 
is  undoubtedly  their  emphatic  opinion  that  man- 
kind has  in  no  true  sense  advanced,  but  has  rather 
retrograded  since  the  day  that  they  played  their 
part  upon  earth. 

Here  the  Downs  are  deeply  dented  by  a 
natural  combe  that  looks  artificial,  and  over 
it  sprawls  an  aerial  railway  that  is  very 
artificial.  This  is  the  far-famed  dyke,  and  the 
legend  is  that  the  poor  man  (as  Sussex  charitably 
calls  the  fallen  archangel  when  merely  he  might 
be  ambiguous,  p.  322),  disturbed  by  the  Wealden 
churches  erected  to  the  glory  of  the  Most  High, 
determined  to  cut  a  trench  through  the  Downs 
and  drown  them  all  under  the  sea.  He  was 
getting  on  fairly  well  when  a  devout  old  woman, 
knowing  well  that  he  would  not  dare  to  pursue 
his  evil  task  by  day,  raised  a  sieve  with  a  candle 
behind  it,  and  the  devil  thinking  it  was  the 
rising  sun  ran  away,  leaving  footmarks  that 
may  still  be  seen.  Bringing  in  St.  Cuthman  to 
direct  the  pious  dame  seems  to  have  been 
Harrison  Ainsworth's  own  idea  in  writing 
Ovingdean  Ch^ange.  The  legend  is  a  very  poor 
one,  and  probably  a  very  recent  one,  it  does  not 
by  any  means  deserve  its  fame.  The  devil  has 
seldom  or  never  come  off  very  well  in  his  struggles 
on  Sussex  soil,  but  it  is  a  poor  thing  for  saints 


THE  SOUTH  DOWNS  215 

to  outwit  him  by  so  transparent  a  device  as  that 
of  the  sieve.  Then  it  is  abundantly  obvious  on 
the  most  superficial  investigation  that  if  the  salt 
water  really  wished  to  overspread  the  Weald  there 
are  plenty  of  Down  gaps  that  already  exist. 

Originally  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  the 
dyke  denoted,  not  the  combe  but  the  camp  that 
crowns  the  spur  of  the  Downs  just  north  of  it; 
sometimes  it  is  called  the  Poor  Man's  Wall.  The 
camp  is  of  considerable  area — some  forty  acres — 
but  the  agger  is  not  very  imposing,  and  its  direction 
is  most  irregular;  it  does  not  even  follow  the 
ground  of  the  hill  very  exactly. 

A  couple  of  miles  west  on  the  main  ridge  at 
Truleigh  Hill,  overlooking  Edburton,  is  an  interest- 
ing earthwork  that  appears  to  have  consisted 
originally  of  three  very  low  but  rather  wide 
tumuli,  the  central  one  larger  than  the  other 
two ;  a  rather  poor  agger  encloses  the  tumuli  with 
a  small  space  to  the  north.  Southward,  half-way 
to  the  sea,  on  Thunderbarrow  Hill,  is  a  largely 
obliterated  ridge  camp.  A  rough  chalk  road  leads 
down  from  the  close  vicinity  of  Truleigh  Hill 
to  the  Weald  near  Edburton.  Like  others  of  its 
kind  it  has  been  lowered  several  feet,  partly  by 
traffic  but  chiefly  by  water,  and  this  has  given 
rise  to  absurd  tales  of  the  Romans  having  exca- 
vated half-concealed  roads  that  their  troops  on 
the  hill  might  be  able  at  any  time  to  surprise 
the  dwellers  in  the  Weald.  In  this  district  may 
be  well  'seen  what  is  described  in  the  Victoria 
History:  "At  the  foot  of  the  chalk  hills  is  often 
found  a  thick  bushy  hedge,  which  can  be  followed 
for  long  distances,  and  also  occurs  under  similar 
circumstances  in  other  counties.  ...  It  consists  of 
a  belt  of  small  trees,  among  which  maple,  cornel, 


216  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

sloe,  hazel,  buckthorn,  wayfaring  tree,  elder, 
holly,  and  spindle-tree  predominate,  and  are 
mixed  with  beech,  ash,  stunted  oak,  yew,  crab- 
apple  and  service-tree.  In  short,  it  appears  to 
be  a  relic  of  the  vegetation  of  the  original  margin 
of  the  native  forest,  rendered  denser  and  trimmed 
to  a  certain  extent,  but  in  other  respects  not 
greatly  altered."  The  general  appearance  of  the 
Weald  from  the  hill  is  still  that  of  a  vast  forest, 
largely  of  oak  with  undergrowth  of  hazel. 
Edburton  has  an  Early  English  church  of  tower, 
nave,  south  porch,  north  transept,  and  chancel; 
it  is  late  in  the  style  (c.  1290)  for  the  most  part, 
and  has  two  low  side  windows,  the  chancel  arch 
dies  into  jambs  above  the  caps  of  the  responds. 
At  the  west  end  are  corbels  to  support  a 
gallery.  The  font  is  about  a  century  older  than 
the  church,  and  a  plain  round  leaden  bowl ;  foliage 
scroll-work  occupies  the  two  lower  bands,  in  the 
upper  one  is  wide  trefoil  arcading,  and  there  is 
a  sort  of  scallop  cornice.  The  pulpit  and  altar 
rails  are  of  Jacobean  character,  and  said  to  have 
been  given  by  Archbishop  Laud.  The  village  was 
once  visited  by  O.  W.  Holmes,  who  found  it  a 
veritable  Arcady,  its  clergyman  strongly  recalling 
Goldsmith's  picture  of  "  the  man  to  all  the  country 
dear  "  and  a  village  boy  seeming  like  a  youthful 
angel  well  placed  in  that  quiet  retreat.  He  dis- 
covered, however,  that  the  youthful  angel  was 
locally  known  chiefly  for  his  power  of  hitting 
out  from  the  shoulder. 

Between  Edburton  and  Poynings  is  the  hamlet 
of  Fulking,  with  several  old  houses,  including  a 
timber-and-plaster  cottage  whose  curved  cross- 
pieces  resemble  what  is  commonly  found  in 
Cheshire,  but  is  unusual  in  the  South.  The  tile 


THE  SOUTH  DOWNS  217 

fountain,  which  commemorates  John  Ruskin,  who 
once  helped  the  hamlet  about  its  water-supply, 
has  been  largely  destroyed,  but  probably  more 
from  a  spirit  of  mischief  than  from  any  serious 
disagreement  with  the  teachings  of  the  artist  on 
the  part  of  the  village  boys. 

Poynings,  as  it  is  now  spelt,  is  still  pronounced, 
as  it  appears  in  the  Cartulary  of  Lewes  Priory, 
Punnings.  It  stands  in  the  Weald  almost  under 
the  Dyke,  and  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  its 
beautiful  early  Perpendicular  church,  which  was 
built  with  money  left  by  Michael  the  second  Baron 
Poynings,  who  died  in  1369  and  was  the  great- 
great-grandfather  of  the  famous  lord-deputy  of 
Ireland.  A  cruciform  building,  it  somewhat  re- 
sembles Alf riston ;  the  four  limbs  are  not  very  far 
from  being  of  equal  length,  and  the  battlemented 
central  tower  has  small  trefoiled  single-light  open- 
ings. There  are  no  aisles,  but  the  nave  has  a 
north  porch :  the  interior  is  most  striking  and 
spacious-looking,  though  the  building  is  not 
large ;  the  tower  arches  spring  from  semi- 
octagonal  responds,  the  roofs  are  plain  open 
timber,  the  windows  are  covered  by  sharply 
pointed  arches  and  the  largest,  over  the  altar, 
has  five  lights.  There  are  trefoiled  sedilia  and 
piscina ;  in  the  south  transept  are  rather  broken 
coffin  slabs  and  some  encaustic  tiles,  monuments 
of  the  family  of  Poynings,  whose  manor-house 
east  of  the  church  has  left  a  few  fragments  used 
in  farm  buildings.  Their  arms  appear  on  a  shield 
over  the  east  window  outside,  and  also  on  the 
porch.  In  the  last,  according  to  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine  (1811),  the  court  leet  for  the  Hundred  of 
Poynings  has  from  time  immemorial  been  held. 
On  each  side  there  is  still  an  extremely  massive 


218  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

old  oak  bench.  On  the  woodwork  of  the  west 
door  is  cut  1628,  and  this  is  also  about  the  date 
of  the  altar-rail  that  encloses  a  square  narrower 
than  the  chancel. 

On  the  Brighton  Road  among  the  Downs  is  the 
little  hamlet  of  Saddlescombe,  where  from  the 
early  thirteenth  century  till  1308  was  a  Preceptory 
of  the  Knights  Templars,  but  so  little  does  the 
spirit  of  that  militant  order  survive  there  that 
the  people  are  now  mostly  Quakers,  and  the  very 
site  of  the  religious  house  is  uncertain. 

Not  far  off  over  the  Downs,  but  some  little  way 
round  by  the  road,  is  Pyecombe,  long  famous  for 
its  sheep-hooks  (figured  by  the  initial  letter),  which 
may  still  be  seen  sometimes  in  the  hands  of  the 
old  shepherds.  His  is  an  occupation  that  has 
changed  less  perhaps  than  any  other,  his  daily 
life  is  probably  not  so  very  different  from  what 
it  was  when  the  camps  on  the  Downs  were  new. 
One  South  Down  shepherd,  born  at  Rottingdean 
in  1782,  John  Dudeney  by  name,  contrived  to  use 
the  long  hours  on  the  Downs  for  study  and 
qualified  himself  to  teach  a  school.  This,  however, 
was  a  case  almost  unique,  nearly  the  only  other 
Sussex  shepherd  who  contrived  to  attend  to  books 
as  well  as  sheep  was  Cuthman,  and  he  only 
managed  it  by  drawing  a  line  on  the  grass  round 
the  flock  and  commanding  them  not  to  go  outside 
it.  But  only  a  saint  could  do  that. 

Sheep-washing  is  still  rather  an  occasion  in 
places,  and  in  old  days  sheep-shearing  was  one 
of  the  principal  events  of  the  farming  year.  The 
sheep-shearers  went  round  in  companies  to  the 
places  where  their  services  were  required,  their 
captain  in  a  gold-laced  hat  and  his  lieutenant 
silver-laced.  One  of  the  old  sheep-shearing  songs 


THE  SOUTH  DOWNS  219 

will  give  a  better  idea  of  the  proceedings  than 
any  amount  of  description. 


"Come,  all  my  jolly  boys,  and  we'll  together  go 
Abroad  with  our  masters,  to  shear  the  lamb  and  ewe  ; 
All  in  the  merry  month  of  June,  of  all  times  in  the  year, 
It  always  comes  in  season  the  ewes  and  lambs  to  shear  ; 
And   then  we  must  work  hard,  boys,  until  our  backs  do 

ache, 
And  our  master  he  will  bring  us  beer  whenever  we  do  lack. 

Our  master  he  comes   round   to   see   our  work   is  doing 

well, 
And  he  cries,    '  Shear  them  close,  men,  for  there  is  but 

little  wool,' 

'O  yes,  good  master,'  we  reply,  '  we'll  do  well  as  we  can,' 
When   our   Captain   calls,    '  Shear   close,   boys ! '   to   each 

and  every  man. 

And  at  some  places  still  we  have  this  story  all  day  long, 
'  Close  them,  boys,  and  shear  them  well ! '  and  this  is  all 

their  song. 

And  then  our  noble  Captain  doth  unto  our  master  say, 
'  Come,  let  us  have  one  bucket  of  your  good  ale,  I  pray.' 
He  turns  unto  our  Captain,  and  makes  him  this  reply  : 
'You  shall  have  the  best  of  beer,  I  promise,  presently.' 
Then  out  with  the  bucket  pretty  Betsy  she  doth  come, 
And  master  says,    'Maid,  mind  and  see  that  every  man 
has  some.' 

This  is  some  of  our  pastime  while  we  the  sheep  do  shear, 
And  though  we  are  such  merry  boys,  we  work  hard,  I 

declare ; 
And  when   'tis  night,  and  we   are  done,  our  master  is 

more  free, 
And  stores  us  well  with  good  strong  beer,  and  pipes  and 

tobaccee. 

So  we  do  sit  and  drink,  we  smoke  and  sing  and  roar, 
Till  we  become  more  merry  far  than  e'er  we  were  before. 


220  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

When  all  our  work  is  done,  and  all  our  sheep  are  shorn, 
Then  home  to  our  Captain,  to  drink   the  ale  that's  strong. 
Tis   a  barrel,   then,  of  hum  cap,  which  we  call   the  black 

ram  ; 

And  we  do  sit  and  swagger,  and  swear  that  we  are  men  ; 
But  yet  before  'tis  night,  I'll  stand  you  half-a-crown, 
That  if  you  ha'n't  a  special  care  the  ram  will  knock  you 

down." 

Pyecombe  church  stands  on  the  Down-side  in 
a  rather  bleak  position,  a  conspicuous  landmark 
from  the  road.  The  little  Norman  chancel  arch 
has  been  supplemented  by  a  smaller  arch  on  each 
side  as  at  Ovingdean.  The  east  window  is  also 
Norman,  but  of  later  character,  and  has  been 
entirely  renewed ;  the  heavily  buttressed  tower 
seems  to  have  been  originally  Early  English,  and 
the  nave  has  some  square-headed  windows  of 
late  Decorated  type.  The  font  is  of  lead,  and  both 
in  character  and  date  very  similar  to  that  at 
Edburton.  The  pulpit  with  carved  panels  is  dated 
1636,  and  there  is  other  woodwork  of  similar 
character. 

On  the  Downs  above  the  village,  with  heather, 
stunted  hawthorn,  and  even  a  little  oak  among 
the  grass,  rises  Wolstonbury  Hill  with  a  circular 
camp  and  a  good  many  pits  that  look  like  the 
sites  of  huts.  Just  below  on  the  borders  of  the 
Weald  are  the  beautiful  woods  and  turf  stretches 
of  Danny  Park.  The  house  was  built  by  George 
Goring  of  Ovingdean  about  1595,  this  date  appear- 
ing on  the  moulded  plaster  ceiling  of  the  back 
stair.  The  front  is  E-  shaped  and  most  impressive 
in  its  simplicity,  the  red  brick  relieved  only  by  the 
stone  oriel  windows  with  their  mullions  and 
transoms ;  almost  the  only  ornament  are  pilasters 
by  the  front  door  and  heads  within  circles  on  the 


THE   SOUTH  DOWNS  221 

attic  gables.  It  was  sold  by  the  builder's  son, 
and  it  passed  to  the  fine  old  family  of  Campion 
when  Henry,  of  Combwell  in  Kent,  M.P.  for  East 

Grinstead,   married   Barbara   Courthope.     On  the 

/~i 

stack-pipes  appear  their  initials  TT     T>with  the  date 

1728.  At  or  about  this  time  the  house  was  un- 
fortunately remodelled,  the  southern  facade — the 
E  points  east — was  furnished  with  pilasters  and 
sash  windows,  the  great  hall,  extending  through 
all  three  stories,  was  classicised  with  a  plaster 
ceiling,  above  which  may  still  be  seen  the  brackets 
and  tie-beams  and  collars  of  the  original  timber 
roof,  which  had  pendants  and  must  have  been 
a  very  striking  work.  The  windows  with  their 
armorial  glass  are  almost  the  only  unaltered 
features  of  the  hall. 

Many  '  old  Sussex  families  had  been  for  the 
Parliament,  in  fact  of  the  fifty-nine  Regicides 
seven  were  Sussex  men,  representing  the  families 
of  Pelham,  Stapley,  Temple,  Norton,  Cawley,  Goffe, 
and  Downes.  But  the  Campions  had  been  stal- 
wart for  the  King  and  bore  arms  in  his  defence. 
The  following  correspondence  between  Sir  William 
and  the  opposing  Roundhead  officer  illustrates 
some  of  the  best  traits  in  our  national  character. 

Wrote  the  Republican  to  Sir  William  Campion — 

"I  reed  a  message  by  my  trumpet,  whereby  I 
understand  you  desire  a  rundlet  of  sack.  Sir,  I 
assure  you  there  is  none  in  this  towne  worth 
sending  to  soe  gallant  an  enemy  as  yourselfe,  but  I 
have  sent  to  London  for  a  rundlet  of  the  best 
that  can  be  got,  and  so  soone  as  it  comes  to  my 
hands  I  shall  present  it  to  you.  For  the  meantime, 
Col.  Theed  hath  sent  you  a  taste  of  the  best  that  is 


222  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

in  Brill.  I  should  be  very  happy  if  wee  might 
meete  and  drink  a  bottle  or  two  of  wine  with  you. 
If  it  be  not  allowed  your  condition  to  honour  me 
with  soe  high  a  favour,  the  civilities  I  have  reed 
engage  me  to  acknowledge  myself  to  be, 

"  Sir,  your  servant, 

"  THOS.  SHILBOURNE." 

To  whom  Sir  William  replied — 

"  I  did  tell  your  trumpet,  that  if  you  would  send 
us  some  sacke,  we  would  drinke  your  health  ;  but 
you  have  expressed  yourselfe  so  faire,  that  I  am 
afraid  I  shall  not  suddenly  be  able  to  requite  it, 
nevertheless  I  shall  let  slip  no  opportunity  for 
meeting  of  you.  I  should  be  glad  to  embrace  an 
occasion,  but  by  reason  of  the  condition  we  are  in, 
I  know  it  would  not  be  consonant  with  myne 
honour.  .  .  .  But  if  you  please  to  favour  me  with 
your  company  here,  (which  I  am  confident  may  be 
done  without  any  prejudice  at  all  to  either)  you  and 
your  friends  shall  receive  the  best  entertainment 
the  garrison  can  afforde,  and  a  safe  returne  and 
you  shall  much  oblige  him  who  is  desirous  to  be 
esteemed  of  you  as 

"  Your  servant, 

"W.  C." 

In  the  parish  church  of  Hurstpierpoint  are 
numerous  tablets  to  the  families  of  Courthope  and 
Campion. 

The  Downs  are  pierced  by  a  tunnel  with  castel- 
lated entrance  for  the  railway  from  London  to 
Brighton,  they  are  crossed  by  means  of  a  deep 
cutting  by  the  road  that  connects  the  same  points. 
Just  east  rises  Clayton  Hill,  on  which  are  two  wind- 


THE  SOUTH  DOWNS  223 

mills  that  form  a  landmark  seen  from  far  over  the 
Weald.  They  are  now  in  rather  sorry  plight,  and 
one  of  them  has  lost  two  sails.  While  water-mills 
date  from  Roman  days,  and  many  are  mentioned  in 
Domesday,  the  first  authentic  mention  of  a  wind- 
mill in  England  is  in  the  Chronicle  of  Josceline  of 
Brakelonde,  a  monk  of  Bury  St.  Edmund's  (the 
authority  for  much  of  Carlyle's  Past  and  Present), 
written  about  1190  ;  the  first  in  Sussex  is  apparently 
in  1199,  at  Bishopstone,  in  connection  with  Bishop 
Seffrid  II.  It  is  probable  that  the  idea  was  brought 
to  Western  Europe  by  the  Crusaders.  Just  below 
the  hill  is  the  ancient  little  church  of  Clayton, 
whose  very  high  nave  is  Saxon.  Long  and  short 
quoins  in  the  north-west  corner  are  still  exposed, 
and  the  remarkable  chancel  arch  has  plain  semi- 
circular bands,  interrupted  merely  by  rough  abaci. 
The  small  chancel  is  an  Early  English  addition 
whose  walls  have  been  tarred.  There  are  traces 
of  frescoes,  and  an  interesting  brass  of  late  date 
commemorates  a  former  rector.  "Of  yr  charitie 
pray  for  the  Soule  of  Mayster  Ried  Idon  p'son  of 
Clayton  and  Pykeen,  which  decessed  the  vi  day 
of  lanuary,  the  yere  of  our  Lord  God  M  v  c  xx  iij ; 
on  whose  soule  Ihu  have  mercy.  Amen."  The 
roof  is  partly  covered  with  stone  slabs,  and  on  the 
west  end  is  a  square  wooden  turret  whose  vane  is 
dated  1781. 

Three  or  four  miles  over  the  Downs  is  the  wall 
of  Stanmer  Park,  which  encloses  the  village  and  a 
good  deal  of  agricultural  land  in  addition  to  the 
hanging  woods  and  the  shaded  turf  expanses  of  the 
actual  park.  The  house  and  church  stand  close 
together  in  a  beautiful  combe  by  a  tree-shadowed 
pond  ;  the  latter  is  modern  and  uninteresting.  The 
house  was  built  about  1724  by  Thomas  Pelham, 


224  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

who  moved  from  the  old  seat  of  the  family  at 
Laughton,  and  it  still  belongs  to  his  representative, 
the  Earl  of  Chichester.  A  court  enclosed  on  one 
side  only  by  an  Ionic  colonnade,  Corinthian  pilas- 
ters, cornices,  panelling,  ceilings  with  flowers 
moulded  in  plaster,  and  some  good  pictures  give 
all  the  charm,  which  is  by  no  means  small,  that  the 
early  Georgian  style  can  produce.  In  the  early 
seventeenth  century  there  grew  up  together  at 
Stanmer  Rectory  two  brothers  who,  trained  in 
strict  Puritan  ideals,  were  to  play  widely  different 
parts.  Stephen  Goffe,  chaplain  to  Charles  L,  was 
one  of  his  most  trusted  agents,  who  vainly  en- 
deavoured to  negotiate  marriages  that  might  bring 
foreign  bayonets  to  England ;  he  afterwards  joined 
the  Oratorians  of  France.  William  Goffe  joined 
the  Roundheads  and  supported  them  heart  and  soul, 
being  one  of  those  who  condemned  Charles  I. 
to  death ;  on  the  Restoration  he  fled  to  New 
England,  whither  the  arm  of  the  Stuarts  hardly 
reached,  and  he  lies  at  rest  in  Hadley,  Massa- 
chusetts, a  beautiful  village  which,  according  to 
tradition,  he  defended  from  an  Indian  raid. 

The  lower  gates  of  Stanmer  Park  are  on  the 
Brighton  and  Lewes  Road,  only  just  beyond  the 
farthest  suburbs  of  the  former  town.  A  little 
nearer  Lewes  is  Falmer,  with  a  pond  on  which 
Brightonians  skate  and  an  ugly  modern  church. 
John  Norden  tells  us  that  as  late  as  1617  there 
were  "three  bondmen  of  bloude  belonginge  unto 
this  manor,  never  known  to  be  anie  way  mannu- 
missed"  and  bearing  too  the  illustrious  name  of 
Goring. 


P"     [The   Barbican    \ 

HE  capital  of  Sussex  is  magnificently  situ- 
ated where  the  Ouse  enters  its  water-gap, 
the  Downs  rise  all  around,  appearing  to 
wall  in  the  site,  and  give  Lewes  much  of  the 
character  of  a  mountain-girdled  town.  Where 
once  were  tidal  flats  bearing  vessels  from  the  sea, 
green  meadows  spread  to-day  both  north  and  south 
of  a  chalk  ridge  that  slopes  upward  from  the  river 
toward  the  West ;  on  its  lower  part  is  the  site  of 
the  old  camp  and  higher  up  the  Castle.  Over  its 
southern  side  spreads  the  greater  part  of  the  town. 
Northward  and  westward  one  steps  from  the 
streets  on  to  the  soft  turf  of  the  Downs,  which  slope 
up  thence  to  Mount  Harry,  where  the  battle  was 
fought,  while  southward  is  a  rapid  descent  to  the 
meadows  where  once  the  Priory  stood.  While  as  a 
rule  the  fronts  of  the  old  houses  face  the  streets, 
their  backs  open  into  delightful  gardens,  where  old- 

IP;  225 

•U 


226  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

fashioned  flower-beds  surround  shaded  lawns  and 
plants  are  rooted  in  the  crumbling  old  walls. 

In  1720  wrote  John  Owen  (p.  282) :  "  Lewis,  a  very 
ancient  Borough  by  Prescription,  by  ye  stile  of 
Constables  and  Inhabitants.  The  sd  Constables 
are  chosen  yearly  at  a  Court  Leet,  held  alternately 
by  3  Lds.  Vizt  ye  D.  of  Norfolk,  ye  E.  of  Dorset 
and  Middlesex  and  ye  Ld  Abergavenny ;  Memb. 
for  Parl  are  elected  by  ye  Inhab.  paying  Scot  and 
Lot,  returned  by  ye  Constables.  This  Town  is  very 
large,  well  built  and  very  agreeably  scituated  both 
for  Air  and  Prospect.  .  .  .  Near  this  Place  Ao  1263 
was  fought  a  Bloody  Battle  between  K.  Hen  3rd 
and  the  Barons ;  wherein  the  K.  being  defeated, 
was  forced  to  submit  to  very  unreasonable  and  dis- 
honourable conditions  of  Peace."  A  little  later  (1724) 
wrote  De  Foe :  "  Lewes  is  a  fine  pleasant  Town, 
well-built,  agreeably  situated  in  the  Middle  of  an 
open  Champain  Country,  and  on  the  Edge  of  the 
South  Downs,  the  pleasantest,  the  most  delightful 
of  their  kind  in  the  Nation ;  it  lies  on  the  Bank  of  a 
little  wholesome  fresh  River,  within  Twelve  Miles  of 
the  Sea ;  but  that  which  adds  to  the  Character  of 
this  Town,  is,  that  both  the  Town,  and  the  Country 
adjacent,  are  full  of  Gentlemen  of  good  Families 
and  Fortunes ;  of  which  the  Pelhams  must  be 
named  with  the  first." 

Wise  and  prudent  people  do  not  supply  the 
ancient  names  of  Sussex  streams,  Camden  calls  the 
Ouse  a  nameless  river  to  be  identified  by  its  pass- 
ing near  Slaugham  on  the  borders  of  St.  Leonard's 
Forest.  Holinshed  says  :  "  Certes  I  am  deceiued  if 
this  river  be  not  called  Isis  after  it  is  past  Isefield  "; 
others  prefer  the  simple  expedient  of  calling  it  the 
water  of  Lewes.  However,  called  by  whatever 
name,  the  river  formed  a  highway  into  the  Weald, 


LEWES  227 

and  a  fjord  extended  some  miles  above  the  capital. 
To  guard  the  channel  at  the  narrowest  place  was 
thrown  up  the  camp  which  supplied  the  site  and 
half  the  name  of  the  Church  of  St.  John-sub- 
Castro.  A  modern  tablet  on  the  houses  of  "  The 
Fosse  "  calls  it  Roman,  but  this  is  a  mere  guess. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  original  camp 
was  much  earlier,  and  there  is  no  real  evidence 
that  Lewes  was  ever  a  Roman  station  at  all.  The 
Fabian  Chronicle  tells  us  that  in  the  21st  year 
of  Alfred  the  Danes  constructed  a  "  castel  "  near 
the  river  which  was  shortly  "  bette  down  to  the 
ground."  If  this  were  so  it  was  probably  a  defence 
of  timber  and  earth  on  the  same  site,  but  the 
evidence  is  late  and  unsatisfactory  ;  the  Chronicle 
was  only  published  in  1516,  three  years  after  the 
death  of  Robert  Fabyan,  its  author.  From  the 
Burghal  Hidage  (p.  116)  we  know  that  about  920 
there  was  a  Saxon  burh  at  Lewes.  This  has 
usually  been  placed  on  the  site  of  the  Norman 
castle,  but  on  the  whole  it  seems  at  least  equally  pro- 
bable (as  Hadrian  Allcrof  t  suggests)  that  it  also  was 
in  the  older  position,  and  that  William  of  Warenne 
chose  an  entirely  new  site  for  his  stronghold. 

The  "  little  ruined  church  overgrown  with 
briars  "  of  Camden  (St.  John-sub-Castro)  is  replaced 
by  a  modern  building  quite  uninteresting  except 
for  two  Saxon  doorways.  One  is  very  curious  as 
having  three  shafts  in  the  same  plane  each  side 
and  round  the  arch,  simple  string  for  abacus  or 
capital  ;  the  other  has  round  the  stones  of  the 
arch  the  inscription — 

CLAUDITUR  HIO  MILES,  DANORUM  REGIA  PROLES  ; 
MANGNUS  NOME  El,  MANGNE  NOTA  PGENIEI 
DEPONENS  MANGNUM,  SB  MORIBUS  INDUIT  AGNUM, 
EPETE  P  VITA,  FIT  PARWLUS  ARNAOORITA. 


228  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

Paul  Dunvan  (History  of  Lewes  and  Bright- 
helmston,  1795,  usually  called  after  William  Lee, 
the  Editor  and  Proprietor)  translates  this — 

"A  Knight  reclines  within  this  narrow  space, 
Who  ow'd  his  birth  to  Denmark's  royal  race, 
First  Magnus  call'd,  a  name  devised  right  well 
The  magnitude  of  such  a  stock  to  tell. 
This  meeken'd  warrior,  for  past  deeds  contrite 
Became  at  last  a  lowly  anchorite." 

The  first  clause  ought,  however,  to  mean  "  Here 
is  shut  in  as  an  anchorite,"  and  the  original 
inscription  was  possibly  cut  in  the  lifetime  of 
Magnus,  who  occupied  the  cell  ;  the  present  letters 
seem  later,  one  or  two  stones  are  restored.  A 
hermit  lived  alone  in  the  woods  or  wherever  he 
liked,  but  an  anchorite  resided  in  a  cell  attached  to 
a  church  and  had  a  hagioscope  through  which  he 
could  watch  the  services  of  the  altar.  He  was 
shut  into  his  cell  with  a  special  service  taken 
by  the  bishop  ;  part  of  the  Burial  Office  was 
used,  for  in  future  he  would  be  dead  to  the  world, 
though  as  we  gather  from  the  will  of  St.  Richard 
he  might  receive  small  legacies.  As  anchorites  had 
plenty  of  time  for  reflection  their  opinions  were 
frequently  treated  with  the  greatest  respect,  and 
at  times  men  came  from  far  to  consult  them.  It 
was  an  essentially  Oriental  idea,  and  never  took 
much  root  among  a  restless  people  always  more 
anxious  to  do  something  or  other  than  to  see 
visions  or  to  dream  dreams  (p.  169). 

Lewes  was  a  place  of  some  importance  in  Saxon 
days,  and  in  the  time  of  ^Ethelstan  possessed  two 
mints. 

By  William  the  Conqueror  the  Rape  of  Lewes 
was  bestowed  on  his  devoted  follower  William  of 


Cooper,-] 


[Eastbourne. 


LEWES   CASTLE. 


To  face  p.  228. 


LEWES  229 

Warenne,  husband  of  Gundrada,  the  daughter  of 
Matilda  and  perhaps  of  the  Conqueror  too.  High 
upon  the  ridge  already  mentioned,  detached  from 
other  hills,  whether  or  not  on  the  site  of  the  burh, 
he  erected  his  strong  castle  on  a  quite  unusual 
plan.  (Most,  in  fact,  of  our  Sussex  castles  are 
peculiar  in  some  way  or  other,  chiefly  from  the 
exigencies  of  situation  ;  there  is  not  a  single  exist- 
ing example  of  the  typical  rectangular  keep.)  The 
highest  part  of  the  ridge  for  the  distance  of  about 
120  yards  was  levelled  and  scarped  to  form  a  great 
oval  court,  and  at  each  end  was  thrown  up  a 
motte,  or  perhaps  existing  eminences,  whether 
natural  or  artificial,  were  utilised.  The  western 
one,  a  most  impressive  mound,  formed  the  keep 
or  chief  centre  of  defence,  the  other,  known  as 
Brackmount,  was  fortified  on  a  rather  smaller 
scale.  Curtain  walls  formed,  at  any  rate  in  places, 
an  additional  protection  to  the  escarpments  of  the 
court ;  and  on  the  south,  facing  the  town,  was  built 
a  grim  gateway,  the  front  wall  of  which,  pierced 
by  a  great  Norman  arch,  curiously  strengthened  by 
a  lower  order  apparently  not  long  after  its  erection, 
still  exists. 

A  later  earl  of  the  House  of  Warenne  about  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  century  erected  a  very 
massive  shell-keep  on  the  highest  mound;  its  walls 
are  10  to  12  feet  thick,  its  plan  is  an  oval  of  34 
by  27  yards.  Only  a  small  part  of  this  shell 
remains,  and  its  only  striking  feature  is  a  huge 
fireplace,  which  Clark  is  probably  right  in  thinking 
was  excavated  in  its  masonry  when  late  in  the 
thirteenth  century  four  multangular  towers  were 
added — regular  passages  through  their  thick  walls 
leading  to  their  narrow  lancets.  One  remains 
fairly  perfect,  and  from  its  battlements  may  be 


230  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

enjoyed  one  of  the  most  magnificent  views  in 
Sussex.  The  topography  of  the  town  and  the 
surrounding  Downs  may  be  conveniently  studied ; 
over  the  site  of  the  Priory  and  the  flats  one  looks 
down  the  valley  to  Newhaven  and  the  Channel ;  to 
the  north  spreads  a  great  expanse  of  the  Weald  up 
to  the  Forest  Ridge.  What  remains  of  another 
tower  is  converted  into  a  seventeenth-century 
summer-house  with  a  large  round  arch ;  of  the  third 
foundations  may  be  traced,  of  the  fourth  nothing 
remains.  These  towers  may  be  the  work  of  the 
earl  who,  in  1280,  when  writs  of  quo  warranto 
were  issued  by  Edward  I.  to  inquire  into  the  titles 
of  land,  drew  his  rusty  sword  and  said  that  was 
warrant  enough.  He  was  defeated  by  Wallace  at 
Stirling  in  1297. 

By  John,  Earl  of  Surrey  and  Sussex  (1286-1347), 
the  last  of  the  House  of  Warenne,  who  took  a 
prominent  part  in  the  events  of  the  reign  of 
Edward  II.  and  served  in  Scotland  and  France,  the 
beautiful  barbican  of  squared  flint  with  stone 
dressings  was  built  out  in  front  of  the  original 
Norman  gate.  A  fine  machicolated  parapet 
projects  on  corbels ;  both  the  round  turrets  and 
the  main  gateway  have  cross-shaped  openings  for 
arrows,  each  expanding  into  a  little  circle  at  the 
bottom.  The  gateway  arches  are  rather  flat ;  there 
are  two  portcullis  grooves  ;  a  plaster  ceiling  has 
replaced  the  vaulting. 

After  the  death  of  the  builder  of  this  latest  part 
of  the  Castle,  Lewes  passed  to  Edmund  Fitzalan, 
whose  great-grandson  left  only  three  sisters,  and 
they  succeeded  to  the  property  as  co-parceners. 
Ever  since  the  Castle  has  enjoyed  a  triple  owner- 
ship, and  at  present  the  Lords  both  of  it  and  of  the 
Borough  of  Lewes  are  the  following  noblemen — 


LEWES  231 

Marquis  of  Abergavenny   ...     one-half. 

Duke  of  Norfolk       one-quarter. 

Earl  de  la  Warr      one-quarter. 

The  actual  (copyhold)  owners  of  the  Castle  are — 

Marquis  of  Abergavenny    ...     one-half. 

Earl  de  la  Warr      one-quarter. 

Baron  Sackville        one-quarter. 

The  Castle,  however,  is  rented,  and  the  seven- 
teenth-century barbican  house  in  High  Street  is 
owned  by  the  Sussex  Archaeological  Society,  which 
maintains  an  admirable  museum  of  Sussex  anti- 
quities and  a  library  of  books  relating  to  the 
county.  In  addition  to  many  architectural  frag- 
ments, rubbings  of  brasses,  prints,  and  so  on,  there 
are  stocks  from  Horsted  Parva,  an  eighteenth- 
century  plough  from  Northease,  and  the  old  Lewes 
fire-engine,  a  panelled  tank  of  oak  on  four  solid 
wheels,  with  hand  rails  to  force  the  water  up 
the  pipe  ;  it  is  dated  1783.  Similar  ones  exist 
at  Rye  and  at  Shelburne,  Nova  Scotia.  Fire- 
engines  of  some  sort  existed  in  Lewes  as  early 
as  1681. 

The  town  defences  utilised  both  the  ancient 
camp  by  the  river  and  the  Norman  Castle,  and 
though  all  the  gates  have  disappeared  there  are 
considerable  remains  of  flint  rubble  walling.  From 
the  site  of  Westgate,  under  the  Castle  keep,  the 
wall  can  be  traced  down  the  hill-side  and  then 
along  by  the  trees  of  Elm  Grove  to  a  passage 
straight  up  the  hill  called  Water  Gate  Lane.  All 
Saints  Church  was  just  within  the  area  of  defence, 
and  the  wall  bordered  its  yard.  Along  Eastgate 
Street  near  the  river  the  walling  remains  for  some 
distance  with  a  late  doorway.  The  defences  round 


232  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

the  old  camp  and  up  the  slope  to  Brackmount  seem 
to  have  been  largely  earthwork.  Thus  three 
important  parts  of  the  town  were  left  outside 
the  walls — Southover  with  the  Priory,  a  suburb 
on  the  present  Brighton  Road  whose  churches 
were  distinguished  as  Westout,  and  the  Cliff  on 
the  far  side  of  the  river.  A  murage  grant  of 
1266  gives  to  the  constables  and  good  men  of 
Lewes  toll  of  nearly  all  agricultural  produce  and 
fish,  of  iron,  lead  and  tin,  and  of  a  few  mis- 
cellaneous articles — for  instance,  every  tumbrel  of 
squirrels  for  sale  had  to  pay  one  halfpenny — to 
enable  them  to  keep  the  walls  in  order.  Another 
grant  for  the  same  purpose  in  1334  enumerates 
much  the  same  articles,  and  specially  includes 
goods  that  came  through  by  water  which  had  not 
been  specified  before. 

Anxious  to  follow  the  fashion  of  the  day  and 
to  make  some  provision  for  their  souls,  William 
of  Warenne  and  Gundrada  had  been  on  pilgrimage 
in  Southern  Europe,  and  visiting  the  renowned 
Abbey  of  Cluny  they  were  greatly  struck  by  its 
good  order  and  discipline ;  so  they  decided  to  erect 
a  daughter-house  in  their  own  town.  Accordingly, 
one  Lanzo  and  three  other  monks  were  sent  to 
Lewes,  where  a  church  dedicated  to  St.  Pancras 
was  assigned  to  them  as  a  beginning  in  1077,  and 
the  great  Cluniac  Priory  that  eventually  secured 
such  immense  property  in  Sussex  rapidly  rose. 

Of  the  magnificent  church  which  the  founders 
thought  should  have  canopied  their  bones  till 
Domesday  there  are  practically  no  remains,  the 
railway  passes  over  the  site  of  cloister,  chapter- 
house, and  quire,  and  engines  shriek  where  once 
the  high  altar  stood.  The  destruction  carried  out 
by  Portinari  for  Thomas  Cromwell,  to  whom  the 


LEWES  233 

house  was  granted  at  the  Dissolution,  was  so 
complete  that  nothing  now  remains  which  can 
give  any  idea  of  the  former  glories  of  the  place. 
However,  the  discovery  of  so  much  that  was 
interesting  when  the  railway  was  built  led  to  the 
foundation  of  the  Sussex  Archaeological  Society, 
and  excavation  has  fairly  revealed  the  whole 
ground-plan,  which  has  thrice  been  published  in 
the  Society's  collections,  each  time  with  increased 
knowledge,  and  the  last  on  a  large  scale  in  colours, 
produced  under  the  direction  of  St.  John  Hope, 
is  really  a  magnificent  piece  of  work.  The  con- 
ventual buildings  were,  as  usual,  south  of  the 
church,  and  in  the  cloister  garth  was  an  ornate 
fountain  as  at  Much  Wenlock,  another  Cluniac 
foundation  in  Shropshire. 

The  principal  existing  remains  are  in  a  field 
just  south  of  the  railway.  Close  to  the  fence  is 
part  of  the  south  wall  of  the  refectory,  and  (east 
of  it)  of  the  warming  house.  There  remain  some 
small  Norman  windows  that  lighted  the  vaulted 
chambers  below  the  refectory,  a  skewed  doorway 
and  part  of  a  newel  stair.  Rubble  walls  of  flint, 
chalk,  and  stone  enclose  rather  complicated  build- 
ings of  two  distinct  periods,  both  Norman.  The 
latter  owe  their  existence  to  a  complete  re- 
modelling and  extension  of  the  house  shortly 
after  1145,  when,  further  accommodation  being 
required,  the*  ^dormitory  over  the  existing  ruins 
was  lengthened  from  102  to  213  feet,  and 
broadened  as  well.  The  vaulted  chambers  of  the 
earlier  period  were  filled  up  or  divided  by  walls 
without  the  very  slightest  respect  for  their 
original  features.  South  of  everything  else  is  the 
second  Domus  necessarian,  a  fine  long  chamber 
against  whose  south  wall  the  vaulted  tunnel 


234  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

through  which  the  stream  flowed  may  still  be 
seen.  A  number  of  old  fragments  of  very  different 
periods  are  built  in.  The  church  and  claustral 
buildings  were  on  solid  chalk;  the  southern  part, 
however,  is  on  the  very  edge  of  the  marshes,  and, 
as  there  were  evidently  signs  of  settling,  huge 
buttresses  were  in  the  fifteenth  century  built 
against  the  south  wall.  They  are  clumsy  things, 
and  not  being  properly  bonded  with  the  earlier 
work  have  gradually  slipped  a  few  inches  away 
from  it. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  part  of  the  ruins 
is  the  recently  excavated  infirmary  chapel,  which 
must  have  been  a  remarkable  Norman  building 
intermediate  in  date  between  the  two  periods 
above  noted.  The  walls  are  so  thick  that  it  was 
probably  vaulted  throughout;  it  is  constructed  of 
small  stones,  rubble  faced  with  ashlar.  It  con- 
sisted of  large  aisleless  nave  with  a  very  narrow 
eastern  transept,  from  which  opened  a  square 
chancel  with  an  apsidal  chapel  each  side,  the 
northern  one  still  retains  its  stone  altar,  except 
for  the  slab ;  it  appears  in  the  photograph.  The 
fragments  of  walling  lean,  illustrating  the  method 
of  destruction — cutting  trenches  along  the  lower 
parts  of  the  walls  inside  and  propping,  then 
removing  the  props  to  cause  the  whole  to  collapse 
inwards.*  Just  south-east  is  a  much  later  frag- 
ment in  which  a  neat  cross  of  worked  flints  is 
inlaid  in  the  rubble.  Farther  east  is  the  Calvary 
mound  that  appears  in  the  photograph,  and 
beyond  it  is  the  depression  that  now  forms  a 

*  "Ten  of  them  hew  the  walls,  among  which  are  three 
carpenters.  These  make  props  to  underset  where  the  others 
cut  away.  The  others  cut  the  walls." — Letter  of  John 
Portinari  to  Cromwell,  March  24,  1538. 


LEWES. 


Hannah. 


SOUTHOVER   CHURCH. 


PRIORY    INFIRMARY   CHAPEL,    I.EWES. 


To  face  p.  234. 


LEWES  235 

cricket-field,  called  the  Dripping  Pan ;  it  may  have 
been  a  fish-pond  or  a  garden.  The  plan  of  the 
infirmary  chapel,  which  stood  just  south  of  the 
quire  of  the  church,  and  many  carved  details 
preserved  seem  to  show  the  influence  of  Burgundy, 
where  the  mother-house  of  Cluny  was  situated. 
The  huge  cross-shaped  dove-cot  with  over  two 
thousand  pigeon-holes  was  standing  in  1807. 

If  we  may  credit  a  story  of  the  Abbot  of  Ely, 
Lewes  Priory  was  founded  in  vain.  The  circum- 
stances may  be  given  in  Dunvan's  words.  "  The 
abbot  was  one  night  interrupted  at  his  devotion 
by  the  rattling  of  the  devil's  carriage,  and  heard 
the  poor  earl  of  Surrey  in  this  infernal  vehicle 
most  piteously  imploring  for  mercy,  but  in  vain ! 
he  had  defrauded  the  holy  brotherhood  of  Ely. 
Next  morning  the  abbot  related  to  the  monks 
what  he  had  heard  the  preceding  night :  And  in 
about  four  days  after  there  arrived  a  messenger 
from  the  Lady  Gundred,  with  one  hundred  shillings 
in  order  to  obtain  the  prayers  of  the  abbey  for 
the  repose  of  the  earl's  soul.  Upon  inquiry  it  was 
found  he  had  died  exactly  at  the  hour  in  which 
the  good  abbot  heard  him  posting  so  reluctantly 
to  h — 11:  And  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  pious 
community  would  receive  the  mortuary  of  a 
shiner  thus  clearly  doomed  to  endless  torture. 
The  messenger  therefore  returned  with  the 
money,  and  a  most  dismal  account  of  his  deceased 
master. 

"  Were  this  circumstance  sufficiently  authenti- 
cated to  convince  modern  sceptics,  it  would  first 
exemplify  to  them  the  danger  of  defrauding  the 
church,  and  secondly  afford  considerable  light  in 
ascertaining  the  locality  of  h — 11.  Ely's  being 
nearly  due  north  from  Lewes,  where  the  earl  is 


236  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

supposed  to  have  died,  would  show  that  the 
scene  of  his  destined  torments  lay  in  that  direc- 
tion, probably  in  the  crater  of  Mount  Hecla  in 
Iceland." 

Allowance  should  certainly  be  made  for  the 
jealousy  that  the  Benedictine  house  of  Ely  would 
inevitably  feel  on  the  introduction  into  England 
of  the  first  priory  of  the  reformed  Cluniac  order, 
but  the  whole  matter  is  rather  too  delicate  to 
be  discussed  in  such  a  work  as  the  present.  The 
mortal  remains  of  William  and  Gundrada  in  small 
coffins  of  lead,  with  cord  patterns,  being  found 
in  the  chapter-house,  a  small  chapel  in  the 
Norman  style  was  in  1847  added  to  the  Church  of 
St.  John,  Southover,  to  receive  them.  Gundrada's 
coffin  slab  or  tombstone  had  formed  part  of  a 
Shirley  monument  at  Isfield,  but  about  1775  it 
was  restored  to  Lewes  and  is  now  in  the  centre 
of  the  chapel.  It  is  inscribed — 

"  Stirps  Gundrada  ducum,  decus  evi,  nobile  germen. 
Intulit  ecclesiis  Anglorum  balsama  morum 
Martiria  hanc  cedem  struxit  Pancrati  in  honorem. 
Martha  fuit  miseris,  fuit  ex  pietate  Maria, 
Pars  obiit  Marthe,  superest  pars  magna  Marie. 
O  pie  Pancrati,  testis  pietatis  et  equi, 
Te  facit  heredem,  tu  clemens  suscipe  matrem. 
Sexta  kalendarum  Junii  lux  obvia  carnis 
Tregit  alabastrum,  superest  para  optima  ccelo." 

The  slab,  which  is  broken  in  parts,  is  of  "  touch," 
and  has  remarkable  ornaments,  including  leopards 
heads.  The  windows  of  the  chapel  have  modern 
glass  representing  St.  Pancras,  William,  and 
Gundrada;  it  also  contains  a  later  recumbent 
effigy,  some  old  keys,  and  encaustic  tiles,  all  from 
the  Priory.  The  church  has  some  remarkably 


LEWES  237 

massive  round  pillars,  each  built  of  many  stones, 
of  early  Norman  date ;  the  rest  of  the  arcade  is 
in  striking  contrast,  late  Perpendicular  work  with 
slim  clustered  pillars  and  very  flat  arches.  Much 
of  the  building,  including  the  aisle,  windows,  and 
tower  door,  is  similar,  dating  probably  from  shortly 
after  1500.  The  battlemented  brick  tower  sur- 
mounted by  a  fish  vane  is  dated  1714,  when  it  was 
rebuilt,  curiously  utilising  older  buttresses ;  it  is 
an  excellent  piece  of  work,  much  more  in  harmony 
with  the  church  than  would  be  expected  at  the 
period.  The  chancel  is  modern  Decorated. 

In  the  Priory  were  accommodated  the  night 
before  the  great  battle  of  May  14,  1264,  the  royal 
army.  The  behaviour  of  the  soldiers  was  of  the 
beastliest,  and  had  no  point  of  advantage  over  the 
conduct  of  the  much-abused  Puritans,  while  in  pro- 
faning the  very  altars  of  Holy  Church,  thirteenth- 
century  Englishmen  could  not  claim  the  miserable 
excuse  that  they  must  help  the  Lord  to  root  out 
the  abomination  of  idolatry  from  the  land.  The 
baronial  army  under  Simon  de  Montfort,  Earl  of 
Leicester,  had  meanwhile  been  advancing  through 
the  woods  of  the  Weald  by  Fletching,  and  on  the 
top  of  the  Downs  north  of  Lewes,  called  Mount 
Harry,  the  momentous  action  was  fought.  The 
young  Edward  had  little  difficulty  in  inflicting 
defeat  on  the  Londoners ;  but,  failing  to  observe 
the  progress  of  the  battle  as  a  whole,  he  gave  no 
support  to  the  two  Kings,  his  father  and  uncle,  the 
former  of  whom,  Henry  III.,  got  back  to  the  Priory, 
while  Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall,  King  of  the 
Romans,  was  compelled  to  make  a  windmill  his 
castle.  It  was  a  hard  hap  to  befall  the  holder  of 
the  highest  place  on  earth,  and  his  ruffled  temper 
was  not  improved  by  the  jeering  yells  of  the 


238  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

baronial  soldiers :  "  Come  out,  you  bad  miller !  .  .  . 
you,  forsooth,  to  turn  a  wretched  mill-master ;  you, 
who  defied  us  all  so  proudly,  and  would  have  no 
meaner  title  than  King  of  the  Romans,  for  ever 
August."  He  was  ignominiously  captured,  and 
scoffing  ballads  concerning  the  event  gave  so  much 
offence  in  high  quarters  that  in  the  third  year  of 
Edward  I.  an  Act  was  passed  "  against  slanderous 
reports  and  tales  to  cause  discord  between  King 
and  people."  This  seems  to  have  been  a  source  of 
the  libel  laws  and  helps  to  account  for  the  old 
maxim  "  the  greater  truth  the  greater  libel."  The 
fact  that  the  libellous  ballads  and  also  the  Annals 
by  a  certain  monk  of  Lewes  (Cotton  MSS.)  of  the 
same  date  crudely  call  Richard  "  King  of  Germany  " 
seems  to  show  that  even  at  that  time  the  "  Holy 
Roman  Empire "  and  "  King  of  the  Romans "  con- 
veyed little  more  to  many  intelligent  people  than 
they  do  at  the  present  day. 

The  Battle  of  Lewes  did  much  to  found  the  House 
of  Commons,  representatives  from  the  towns  being 
henceforth  summoned  to  Parliament  (not  at  first 
regularly),  and  although  at  first  they  thought 
attendance  there  a  bore,  they  were  gradually  to 
change  its  whole  character.  Simon  de  Montfort, 
though  of  foreign  extraction,  became  a  national 
hero,  and  his  grave  a  place  of  pilgrimage.  By 
popular  acclaim  he  was  placed  among  the  saints, 
whose  company  indeed  includes  many  a  worse  man 
than  he.  Though  never  under  the  official  direc- 
tion of  the  Church's  hierarchy,  he  was  invoked 
by  many  lips. 

"Hail,  Simon  de  Montfort,  hail, 
Knighthood's  fairest  flower  1 
England  does  thy  death  bewail, 
Whom  thou  didst  shield  with  power. 


LEWES  239 

Never  did  Saint  such  tortures  rend, 

As  thee  of  Martyr  race ; 
Thou  who  on  earth  didst  God  defend 

Now  gain  for  us  God's  grace."* 

Besides  the  two  churches  dedicated  to  St.  John 
already  mentioned,  Lewes  still  possesses  four 
others ;  there  were  once  about  thirteen  in  all. 
St.  Michael's  has  a  low  round  tower  of  Norman 
date  with  a  later  shingled  spire.  Part  of  the  south 
arcade  is  late  fourteenth-century  work,  the  rest  of 
it  and  all  the  northern  one  date  from  1748,  when 
the  church  was  rebuilt,  the  style  being  a  curious 
mixture  of  Classic  and  Gothic  forms;  the  south 
wall  has  good  squared  flint- work.  There  is  a 
very  massive  seventeenth-century  screen  in  the 
north  aisle ;  the  south  aisle  contains  the  consistory 
court.  There  are  two  brasses,  a  knight  with  feet 
on  lion  and  a  priest,  the  latter  dated  1457.  On  the 
north  wall  is  a  monument  to  Sir  Nicholas  Pelham 
and  his  wife,  with  kneeling  figures  (p.  261).  The 
church  contains  a  copy  of  the  Breeches  Bible,  1578. 

All  Saints,  the  only  other  parish  church  within 
the  walls  (except  St.  John-sub-Castro  already 
described)  has  an  early  Perpendicular  tower 
mantled  in  ivy,  a  nave  built  in  1807  with  gallery 
round  three  sides,  and  a  new  chancel.  The  parish 
was  formed  by  the  union  of  St.  Nicholas,  Holy 
Trinity,  and  St.  Peter  the  Less. 

The  most  interesting  church  still  existing  in 
Lewes  is  St.  Mary  Westout,  little  altered  since  its 
original  erection  late  in  the  twelfth  century,  except 
that  at  some  time  in  the  sixteenth  century  its 
name  was  changed  to  St.  Anne's.  The  parishes  of 
St.  Mary  and  St.  Peter,  Westout,  were  united  in 

*  Blaauw's  Barons'  War. 


240  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

1 538 ;  it  is  just  possible  that  the  dedication  was 
changed  to  flatter  Anne  of  Cleves,  who,  however, 
only  came  to  England  in  1540.  The  church  consists 
of  west  tower,  with  later  octagonal  spire,  nave 
with  south  aisle  and  transept  and  chancel.  The 
transept  is  vaulted,  the  round  pillars  have  carved 
corbels  to  support  the  corners  of  the  square 
capitals,  a  beautiful  local  peculiarity  found  also  at 
Beddingham,  Rodmell,  and  Telscombe.  The  font 
has  a  trellis  pattern  rather  resembling  that  of 
Denton.  Among  others  buried  here  are  Thomas 
Twyne  (1543-1613),  an  Elizabethan  scholar  and 
medical  man  who  left  several  works,  commemorated 
by  a  brass  inscription ;  John  Row,  the  antiquary, 
Principal  of  Clifford's  Inn,  who  died  in  1639  and 
whose  marble  gravestone  was  found  in  1832,  and 
Mark  Antony  Lower  (1782-1865),  who  wrote  much 
on  Sussex  archaeology  and  was  one  of  the  chief 
founders  of  the  Society  whose  object  is  to  study 
it.  Both  the  latter  lived  in  St.  Anne's  House,  now 
pulled  down. 

In  the  Cliff  suburb  is  the  fifteenth-century 
Church  of  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  a  simple 
building  of  tower,  nave  with  aisles  and  chancel ; 
the  octagonal  pillars  are  rather  higher  than  might 
be  expected  in  a  structure  of  the  size,  and  there 
is  a  large  hagioscope  from  the  south  aisle. 

Lewes  contains  a  great  many  old  houses,  most 
of  them  are  oak-framed  and  show  heavy  beams 
and  panelling  within  ;  but  the  outsides  are  usually 
altered  out  of  recognition — the  street  fronts 
cemented  and  the  walls  facing  the  gardens  hung 
with  weather  tiles.  No.  74,  High  Street  has  a  most 
interesting  oak  window  of  the  early  fourteenth 
century,  shaft-mullions  supporting  trefoiled  arches 
with  qua  trefoil  openings  above.  In  Southover  is 


LEWES  241 

the  so-called  Anne  of  Cleves  House,  a  picturesque 
building  of  stone,  brick,  flint,  and  oak  with  a  wide- 
arched  stone  fireplace  inside ;  the  porch  is  inscribed 
"  I.  S.  1599,"  but  some  portions  may  be  older.  The 
manor  of  Southover  was  in  1541  granted  to  Anne 
of  Cleves  when  the  whimsical  King,  tired  of  her 
almost  at  once,  discarded  the  "Flanders  mare" 
and  found  a  fifth  wife  in  one  of  the  Howards. 

The  old  town  house  of  the  Gorings,  a  sixteenth- 
century  building  of  flint  with  stone  mullioned 
windows,  was  for  a  time  the  Bull  Inn,  and  in  1687 
it  became  a  Presbyterian  meeting  house,  to  adapt 
it  for  which  purpose  the  whole  interior  was  gutted. 
During  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century 
T.  W.  Horsfield,  well  known  for  his  voluminous 
History  of  Sussex,  was  its  minister.  It  is  now 
Unitarian,  and  usually  known  as  Westgate  Chapel 
from  its  position.  Adjoining  is  a  much-altered 
old  oak-framed  house  whose  projecting  upper  storey 
is  sustained  by  a  sort  of  faun  that  forms  a  bracket, 
where  from  1768  to  1774  lived  Thomas  Paine, 
author  of  the  Rights  of  Man,  Age  of  Reason,  &c. 
While  at  Lewes  he  carried  on  the  professions  of 
exciseman  and  tobacconist,  and  when  an  agitation 
that  he  got  up  proved  a  failure  he  sought  a  more 
congenial  sphere  for  his  talents  in  America.  A 
great  friend  of  his  at  Lewes  was  Thomas  "  Clio " 
Rickman  (p.  250),  who  fully  shared  his  radical  views. 
Both  were  Quakers  by  birth,  but  not  otherwise. 
Just  east  of  All  Saints  Church  stands  in  its  own 
graveyard  a  peaceful  little  Meeting  House  for 
Friends  which  dates  from  1784,  but  it  would  have 
made  no  appeal  to  them.  The  information  given 
us  by  Erasmus  as  to  the  low  position  to  which  the 
clerical  office  had  sunk  in  the  early  part  of  the 
sixteenth  century  is  corroborated  by  the  will  of 

16 


242  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

Agnes  Morley  (1511),  a  Lewes  lady  who  founded 
the  Grammar  School,  which  in  1885  was  dissolved 
into  exhibitions.  "Item,  if  Andrew,  Roger, 
Thomas  or  Clement  bee  a  Relligious  man,  I  will 
that  his  bequest  shal  bee  divided  amonges  the 
remenaunt.  Item,  if  anny  of  theym  bee  prestes, 
I  wille  that  he  shall  not  occupie  my  housyng,  if 
anny  of  the  other  bee  alive."  How  far  such  views 
were  general  in  the  capital  at  the  time  it  would 
be  difficult  to  say,  but  intending  quite  the  opposite 
Queen  Mary  contrived  to  do  much  to  spread  them. 
At  the  end  of  High  Street  by  the  old  Market  Place 
was  the  famous  Star  Inn,  on  whose  site  the  new 
Town  Hall  now  stands,  its  chief  interest  being  that 
it  contains  the  old  Jacobean  oak  stair  from  the 
mansion  of  the  Coverts  at  Slaugham.  It  is  double 
after  the  landing,  the  posts  are  very  thick  and 
heavy,  with  finials  and,  where  possible,  pendants ; 
the  rail  rests  on  round  arches,  the  shafts  with 
Ionic  caps.  There  are  carvings  representing  the 
Continents,  the  senses,  the  virtues,  the  elements, 
&c.  Just  in  front  were  burnt  the  martyrs  to 
whose  memory  has  recently  been  erected  on  the 
Down-side  above  the  suburb  of  Cliff  an  obelisk  of 
white  granite,  far  more  conspicuous  than  beautiful. 
John  Foxe  gives  a  lengthy  account  of  "The 
history  of  ten  true  godly  disciples  and  martyrs  of 
Christ  burnt  together  in  one  fire  at  Lewes  anno 
1557,  June  22."  The  most  famous  of  them  was 
the  iron- worker,  Richard  Woodman,  who  first  got 
into  trouble  by  pointing  out  that  the  parish  priest 
of  Warbleton,  whose  ministrations  he  attended, 
had  turned  head  to  tail  and  preached  clean  con- 
trary to  that  which  he  had  before  taught.  He 
was  examined  by  John  Christopherson,  the  Marian 
Bishop  of  Chichester,  who  seems  to  have  been  a 


LEWES  243 

good-natured  and  fairly  scholarly  man,  certainly 
not  very  extreme  or  bigoted  for  that  somewhat 
intolerant  age  ;  for  instance,  he  fully  admits  that 
a  married  man  may  be  a  worthy  bishop.  Both 
in  courtesy  and  temper,  largely  in  argument  too, 
he  had  the  better  of  the  prisoner  whom  he  invited 
to  dinner,  and  tried  in  every  way  to  induce  him 
to  conform.  But  Woodman  was  a  true  Sussexian 
and  would  not  be  "  druv,"  his  convictions  were  of 
the  very  firmest  and  far  dearer  to  him  than  life. 
Nor  was  he  awed  by  his  diocesan  even  into  what 
would  now  be  considered  ordinary  civility;  he 
rebuked  the  Bishop  for  swearing  when  he  had 
merely  prefaced  a  sentence  with  "By  God  and 
my  troth,"  though  he  had  himself  ejaculated 
"O  Lord,"  which  one  would  think  was  at  least 
equally  profane. 

Woodman  persistently  declared  "  I  believe  verily 
that  I  have  the  spirit  of  God."  The  Bishop  was 
rather  humbler  in  his  ideas ;  perhaps  he  was 
conscious  of  his  faults.  At  Cambridge  he  had  let 
College  lands  to  his  brother,  and  got  into  trouble 
for  "grafting";  at  any  rate,  when  asked,  "  Be  you 
sure  that  you  have  the  Spirit  of  God  ? "  he  would 
only  reply,  "  No,  I  am  not  sure  of  that,"  upon  which 
the  prisoner  retorted,  rather  rudely,  "  that  he  was 
like  the  waves  of  the  sea,  unstable  in  all  his  ways 
whom  God  would  spew  out  of  his  mouth." 

A  Japanese  proverb  declares,  "Tis  the  quality 
of  the  faith  that  counts,  though  its  object  were 
but  a  sardine's  head,"  and  Sussex  is  proud  to 
place  among  her  worthies  both  Woodman,  the 
sturdy  martyr,  and  Christopherson,  for  a  short 
while  her  bishop,  just  as  England  raises  statues 
impartially  to  Cromwell  and  to  Charles  I.,  to 
James  II.  and  to  William  III.  We  have  advanced 


244  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

far  from  the  spirit  that  led  even  M.  A.  Lower  to 
fall  over  himself  in  apologies  for  including  Shelley 
among  the  Worthies  of  Sussex,  and  while  duly 
recording  the  life  of  John  Cade  to  omit  all  men- 
tion of  the  Regicides !  Lewes  yet  maintains  the 
tradition  of  her  martyrs,  and  by  no  town  in  the 
kingdom  probably  is  November  5th  still  annually 
celebrated  with  such  zeal. 

The  Downs  above  the  Martyrs'  Memorial,  dedi- 
cated to  golf  and  commanding  magnificent  views 
all  around,  are  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  range 
by  the  valley  of  the  stream  called  Glynde  Reach, 
up  which  the  tide  flows  into  the  Weald  nearly 
as  far  as  Laughton  Place.  The  upland  grass  is 
varied  by  great  patches  of  fragrant  furze  and 
by  a  few  tufts  of  heather.  Overlooking  the 
junction  of  the  two  streams  on  the  flat  land 
below  is  Mount  Caburn,  said  to  be  derived  from 
Caer  Bryn,  "  hill  fort."  At  any  rate  there  is  a  Celtic 
camp,  roughly  oval  in  form,  the  defence  being 
doubled  on  the  side  towards  the  Downs,  which 
is  not  protected  by  the  steep  descent  to  the  rivers. 
An  additional  agger  and  fosse  defend  the  ridge 
towards  Lewes. 

A  very  short  distance  up  the  Ouse  from  the 
capital  is  the  ancient  village  of  Mailing,  where  was 
a  college  in  Saxon  days,  dating  at  any  rate  from 
the  eighth  century  and  lasting  till  the  sixteenth. 
Its  dignitaries  seem  to  have  been  very  fond  of 
living  elsewhere.  The  existing  church,  dated 
1626,  with  tower  and  nave,  is  a  good  example  of 
the  Jacobean  Gothic  revival.  The  windows  are 
trefoiled  lancets,  and  it  has  quite  the  character 
of  a  much  older  building  at  first  sight.  It  was 
built  by  John  Stansfield,  the  grandfather  of  John 
Evelyn,  who  spent  his  boyhood  at  Mailing.  The 


LEWES  245 

place,  purchased  by  the  Kempe  family  in  1639, 
later  passed  by  marriage  to  Dr.  Russel  of  Brighton 
fame  (p.  185),  who  is  buried  there.  His  son  took 
the  name  of  Kempe.  The  Primates  in  earlier  days 
had  a  residence  at  Mailing,  of  which  a  fragment 
of  Norman  walling  remains.  It  was  here  that 
the  four  knights  who  had  murdered  Becket  rested 
for  a  while  and  piled  their  sacrilegious  arms  on 
a  table,  which,  refusing  to  bear  the  burden,  twice 
threw  them  off,  the  noise  and  the  distance  to 
which  they  were  sent  being  much  increased  on 
the  second  occasion.  No  one  seems  to  have  been 
in  the  room  when  it  happened,  and  as  no  apparent 
cause  could  be  found,  the  supernatural  explana- 
tion was  accepted. 

On  the  far  side  of  Lewes,  among  the  Downs  but 
overlooking  the  Ouse  valley,  is  the  little  village 
of  Kingston.  It  was  always  closely  associated 
with  Lewes  Priory,  whose  dedication  to  St.  Pancras 
its  little  church  preserves.  He  was  a  boy  at 
Rome  martyred  in  the  persecution  of  Diocletian. 
It  is  a  plain  little  sanctuary,  the  chancel  and 
nave  of  early  fourteenth  century  date  with 
Decorated  windows  and  the  tower  with  lancets 
a  little  earlier.  The  churchyard  has  a  large  yew- 
tree.  It  is  a  typical  Down  village,  quite  unspoilt, 
but  not  so  beautiful  as  some. 

NOTE  TO  P.  228. — Clauditur  is  a  very  common  beginning 
to  a  mediatval  epitaph,  probably  because  it  scanned  easier 
than  clausus  est,  but  the  position  of  this  inscription  would 
be  unusual  for  an  epitaph. 


HE  water-gap  through  the  Downs 
between  the  capital  of  Sussex  and  the 
sea,  the  lower  valley  of  the  Ouse,  contains 
some  forgotten  villages  which  though 
in  sight  and  hearing  of  the  boat  trains  to  New- 
haven  are  as  lonely  and  primitive  as  almost  any 
in  the  county.  In  them  may  sometimes  be  seen 
the  old  Sussex  game  of  stoolball,  whose  wickets 
are  boards  nailed  to  the  tops  of  poles  and  in 
which  a  whole  village  may  join  irrespective  of 
age  or  sex.  Just  south  of  Lewes  are  extensive 
flats,  of  old  a  small  inland  sea,  now  grassy 
meadows  over  which  the  Ouse  flows  by  a  channel 
well  to  the  east.  Where  the  Downs  slope  down 
to  the  edge  of  the  flats  two  miles  south  of  Lewes 
is  Iford,  a  little  village  shaded  by  olms  with  a 
fine  holly  hedge  to  protect  the  churchyard.  The 
church  is  late  Norman,  and  its  low  central  tower 
stands  on  four  arches,  very  massive,  that  facing 
the  nave  having  shafts  and  a  variety  of  zigzag, 
those  north  and  south,  it  appears,  were  never 
more  than  arcades.  The  east  wall  is  pierced  by 
three  little  windows  with  a  circular  opening  above, 

246 


NEWHAVEN  247 

there  is  an  original  piscina.  The  nave  is  rough 
Early  English  work  that  has  gained  and  then  lost 
a  north  aisle. 

The  next  village  is  Rodmell,  with  a  quaint  little 
late  Norman  church ;  the  chancel  arch  is  very 
ornate,  but  has  been  almost  entirely  renewed; 
just  south  is  an  original  squint  (or  hagioscope)  with 
a  black  marble  shaft  having  strange  twisted 
fluting  in  the  middle ;  the  nave  is  divided  from 
its  south  and  only  aisle  by  two  round  arches  and 
a  round  pillar  whose  square  foliage  cap  rests  on 
four  corbels,  one  head  and  three  knobs  of  foliage. 
There  is  an  Early  English  south  chapel  to  the 
chancel,  and  built  during  the  same  period  is  a 
tower  with  square  shingled  spire ;  the  present  vane 
bears  date  1778.  An  extremely  interesting  little 
screen,  its  date  about  1300,  has  tref oiled  arcading 
with  heavy  circles  enclosing  quatrefoils  and  em- 
battled beam  above.  In  1433  a  brass  memorial 
was  made  for  John  Brake  and  Agatha  his  wife, 
inscribed  in  Latin,  and  reverently  placed  over 
their  grave ;  in  1673  it  was  stolen  for  John  de 
la  Chambre,  Esq.,  whose  epitaph  in  English  was 
engraved  on  the  other  side.  Such  palimpsests  are 
much  more  usual  than  they  should  be,  they  reflect 
most  unfavourably  on  the  honesty  of  the  friends 
of  the  later  person  commemorated. 

The  almost  adjoining  village  of  Southease  has 
a  very  small  church,  which  seems  once  to  have 
consisted  merely  of  Norman  nave  and  chancel ; 
the  latter  was  extended  and  side  chapels"  built 
at  a  later  period,  but  few  original  features  are 
left ;  the  east  end  has  a  hip  roof  and  a  lime-tree 
shades  the  window.  But  by  far  the  most  interest- 
ing part  of  the  church  is  the  round  tower,  clearly 
an  addition  to  the  Norman  nave.  Built  with  as 


248  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

little  expense  as  was  possible,  it  joins  the  older 
wall  and  rests  on  the  gable ;  its  windows  are  little 
lancets,  and  it  seems  to  date  from  about  1200; 
the  shingled  spire  is  later. 

In  days  before  Birmingham  had  taught  England 
to  think  imperially  it  was  very  common  for  people 
to  confine  their  thoughts  to  the  village,  and 
relations  with  the  next  village  were  frequently 
anything  but  cordial.  In  some  parts  of  the 
country,  particularly  where  neighbouring  villages 
were  once  in  different  Saxon  kingdoms,  mutual 
dislike  sometimes  led  to  serious  fighting,  but  in 
Sussex,  as  a  rule,  there  was  merely  a  warfare  of 
words.  The  people  of  Piddinghoe  were  in  those 
days  accused  of  being  in  the  habit  of  shoeing 
their  magpies,  but  the  precise  point  of  this  local 
witticism,  if  it  had  any,  would  appear  to  have 
been  lost.  Their  church  stands  on  the  bank  of 
the  tidal  river,  and  there  are  prettily  overgrown 
cuttings  in  the  chalk  of  the  Downs  on  the  other 
side  of  the  road.  The  original  Norman  nave 
seems  coeval  with  the  round  tower,  which  is 
earlier  than  that  at  Southease,  and  opens  by  a 
massive  arch.  That  of  St.  Michael  at  Lewes  is 
the  only  other  round  church  tower  in  Sussex ;  the 
reason  for  building  them  was  evidently  the 
scarcity  of  stone  suitable  for  quoins  while  flints 
were  abundant.  An  octagonal  shingled  spire 
supports  the  fish  vane  that  Kipling  has  made 
famous.  Four  round  arches  on  the  north  and 
four  pointed  ones  on  the  south  were  evidently 
pierced  through  the  walls  when  aisles  were 
required.  A  little  Perpendicular  window  in  the 
south  wall  beyond  the  arches  seems  to  have  been 
made  when  the  aisle  was  in  ruins.  The  chancel 
and  its  aisles  are  later  than  the  nave,  and  the 


NEWHAVEN  249 

chancel  arch,  sharply  pointed,  well  moulded  and 
resting  on  clustered  responds,  four  of  whose  six 
shafts  have  carved  caps,  is  a  beautiful  piece  of 
work. 

Meeching  was  of  old  a  quiet  Down  village 
looking  over  the  cliffs  at  the  sea  and  over  the 
flats  at  the  river  mouth  to  the  port  of  Seaford. 
When  the  river  altered  its  course  and  the  harbour 
was  shifted  to  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  which  the 
village  stands  (p.  263),  it  exchanged  its  ancient  name 
for  the  commonplace  designation  of  Newhaven. 
The  old  Elizabethan  house  on  the  hill  by  the 
church,  which  is  dated  1599  and  was  entirely  re- 
modelled in  the  eighteenth  century,  is  still  known 
as  Meeching  Place.  The  old  part  of  the  church 
consists  of  a  wide  tower  and  round  apse  built 
of  rubble  flint  and  several  different  kinds  of  stone, 
including  a  hard  brown  conglomerate.  The  apse 
has  pilaster  buttresses  and  very  tiny  windows, 
the  tower  has  the  curious  peculiarity  of  turning 
the  more  ornate  shafted  sides  of  its  arches  inwards 
where  they  can  least  be  seen.  The  upper  stage 
has  little  double  windows,  not  quite  over  those 
below,  and  it  may  be  slightly  later  in  date,  though 
the  whole  is  Norman ;  the  original  corbel-table 
now  supports  a  shingled  spire.  The  building 
greatly  resembles  the  church  of  Yainville  on 
the  Seine.  The  nave  and  its  aisles  are  modern 
and  extremely  ugly;  an  Irish  sailor  is  credited 
with  the  remark  that  the  church  sails  stern  fore- 
most. 

In  the  churchyard  is  an  obelisk  to  the  crew 
of  H.M.S.  Brazen,  which  "had  been  ordered  to 
protect  this  part  of  the  coast  from  the  insolent 
attacks  of  the  enemy,"  but  was  wrecked  under 
the  cliff  on  January  20,  1800,  with  only  one  sur- 


250  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

vivor.  Her  captain,  Hanson,  had  sailed  with 
Vancouver,  and  the  monument  was  restored  by 
his  widow  in  October,  1878 — an  extraordinary 
instance  of  longevity. 

At  the  west  end  of  the  churchyard  is  a  grave- 
stone with  an  ornate  4-piered  bridge  incised  at 
the  top ;  it  is  inscribed — 

"To  the  Memory  of 
THOMAS  TIPPER  who 
departed  this  life  May  ye  14th 
1785.     Aged  54  years. 

"  Reader,  with  kind  regard  this  grave  survey 
Nor  heedless  pass  where  Tipper's  ashes  lay. 
Honest  he  was,  ingenuous,  blunt,  and  kind  ; 
And  dared  do,  what  few  dare  do,  speak  his  mind. 

Philosophy  and  History  well  he  knew, 
Was  versed  in  Physick  and  in  surgery  too. 
The  best  old  stingo  he  both  brewed  and  sold  ; 
Nor  did  one  knavish  act  to  get  his  gold. 

He  played  through  life  a  varied  comic  part 
And  knew  immortal  Hudibras  by  heart. 
Reader  in  real  truth  such  was  the  Man, 
Be  better,  wiser,  laugh  more  if  you  can." 

The  poet  was  Thomas  "  Clio  "  Rickman  of  Lewes, 
a  great  friend  of  Thomas  Paine. 

Stingo  was  a  strong  ale  brewed  with  slightly 
brackish  water,  and  it  became  a  favourite  drink 
in  the  Pavilion  at  Brighton.  It  is  still  to  be  had 
at  Newhaven,  where  it  is  advertised  as  Tipper 
Ale.  On  June  24,  1764,  there  visited  its  inventor 
Mr.  Thomas  Turner,  a  tradesman  of  East  Hoathly, 
whose  diary  has  preserved  the  following  account 
of  the  day.  "  In  the  morn,  at  thirty  minutes  past 
five,  Tho.  Durrant  and  I  set  out  for  Newhaven, 


NEWHAVEN  251 

to  see  my  very  worthy  friend  Mr.  Tipper,  where 
we  arrived  at  fifty  minutes  past  seven,  and  break- 
fasted with  my  friend  Tipper ;  after  which  we 
walked  down  to  the  sea,  where  we  entertained 
ourselves  very  agreeably  an  hour  or  two.  We 
also  had  the  pleasure  to  see  a  lunet  battery, 
erected  there  to  guard  the  entrance  of  the 
harbour;  it  consists  of  five  guns,  18-pounders, 
mounted  and  everything  ready  for  action.  There 
is  a  very  neat  house  and  magazine  belonging  to 
the  fort,  and  a  gunner  resident  there.  We  dined 
with  my  friend  Tipper,  on  a  legg  of  lamb  boiled, 
a  hot  baked  rice  pudding,  a  gooseberry  pye,  a 
very  fine  lobster,  green  sallet  and  fine  white 
cabbage.  We  staid  with  my  friend  Tipper  till 
thirty  minutes  past  four,  and  then  came  away, 
and  came  home  safe  and  well  about  three  minutes 
past  nine." 

The  fort,  which  appears  in  the  chapter  head- 
ing, is  still  maintained,  and  is  armed  with  12- 
pounders  and  6-inch  guns,  intended  chiefly  to 
guard  the  harbour  from  torpedo  attack.  During 
practice  on  clear  days  one  may  sometimes  see 
smoke-rings  rising  from  the  mouths  of  the  guns 
into  the  air  with  *a  rapid  rotating  motion,  as 
regular  as  hoops.  The  site  has  long  been  devoted 
to  purposes  of  fortification,  for  the  vaulted 
passages  and  earthworks  of  the  stronghold  are 
within  the  limits  of  an  ancient  Down  camp. 

Very  few  works  of  any  kind  tell  us  as  much 
of  the  past  history  of  the  county  in  comparatively 
recent  days  as  the  Diary  of  Mr.  Turner,  and  Charles 
Fleet  is  well  justified  in  saying  it  gives  us  "a 
picture  of  rural  manners  in  the  eighteenth  century 
which  is  worth  a  whole  library  of  learned  essays, 
or  sermons  or  fashionable  novels,"  "we  can  see 


252  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

here  how  Englishmen  of  the  middle  classes 
actually  passed  their  lives  .  .  .  how  they  waked 
and  played — eat,  drank,  rode,  and  smoked,  swore 
and  prayed — quarrelled  and  amused  themselves." 
If  Samuel  Pepys  has  a  world-wide  fame  and 
Thomas  Turner  merely  a  local  reputation,  it  is 
only  because  they  were  placed  in  different  spheres. 
Other  Sussex  diaries  have  been  published,  but  they 
are  not  to  be  compared  with  his ;  the  Stapleys  of 
Hickstead  belonged  to  the  quality,  but  from  their 
journals  we  learn  little  more  than  the  punc- 
tiliously methodical  way  in  which  they  settled 
their  accounts  with  their  neighbours,  and  nothing 
more  interesting  than  the  capture  of  a  salmon 
trout  thirty-eight  inches  long,  or  the  sharing  of 
the  meat  among  neighbours  when  animals  were 
killed. 

But  Mr.  Turner  favours  us  with  his  views  on 
many  points  of  really  permanent  interest;  he 
read  the  standard  works  of  the  day,  he  was 
interested  in  national  affairs.  On  July  18,  1756, 
he  wrote  :  "  Oh,  my  country  !  my  country  ! — oh, 
Albian,  Albian !  I  doubt  thou  art  tottering  on 
the  brink  of  ruin  and  desolation  this  day!  The 
nation  is  all  in  a  foment  upon  account  of  loos- 
ing dear  Minorca."  (England  has  survived  the 
loss  of  Minorca  though  she  still  is  tottering  on 
the  brink  of  ruin.)  Another  reference  to  national 
affairs,  to  the  Peace  of  Paris  in  fact,  is  rather 
incomprehensible ;  on  May  5,  1763,  he  wrote : 
"  I  think  almost  every  one  seems  to  be  dissatis- 
fied with  this  peace,  thinking  it  an  ignominious 
and  inglorious  one."  We  would  gladly  have  more 
details  as  to  why  a  treaty  which  placed  England 
in  a  prouder  position  among  the  nations  than 
she  had  ever  occupied  before,  put  Canada  and 


NEWHAVEN  253 

India  in  her  power  and  the  control  of  the  oceans 
in  her  hand,  commended  itself  so  little  to  the 
good  people  of  East  Hoathly. 

Few  village  traders  of  to-day  are  so  well  read 
in  good  literature  as  was  Thomas  Turner,  among 
many  other  works  which  he  appreciated  were 
Shakespeare's  Plays,  Pope's  Homer,  Gray's  Poems, 
Thomson's  Seasons,  Young's  Night  Thoughts, 
Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  and  Smollett's  Peregrine 
Pickle,  nor  are  his  notes  on  what  he  read  by  any 
means  unintelligent  or  superficial.  His  political 
sympathies  in  domestic  affairs  now  and  then 
find  utterance,  and  of  the  articles  in  the  North 
Briton  that  landed  John  Wilkes  who  wrote  them 
in  the  Tower,  he  says :  "I  really  think  they 
breath  forth  such  a  spirit  of  liberty  that  it  is  an 
extreme  good  paper."  Against  what  seemed  likely 
to  interfere  with  his  own  trade  he  expresses  the 
warmest  indignation.  There  came  round  one  day 
a  hawker,  "  which  must  undoubtedly  be  some 
hurt  to  trade,  for  the  novelty  of  the  thing  (and 
novelty  is  surely  the  predominant  passion  of 
the  English  nation  and  of  Sussex  in  particular)  * 
will  catch  the  ignorant  multitude  and  perhaps 
not  them  only  but  the  people  of  sense,  who 
are  not  judges  of  goods  and  trade,  as  indeed 
very  few  are ;  but,  however,  as  it  is  it  must  pass." 

None  of  us  are  without  our  faults,  and  Mr. 
Turner  was  not  very  singular  among  the  English- 
men of  his  day  in  being  a  little  too  fond  of 
"the  best  old  stingo,"  though  it  must  be  added 
that  the  clergy  whose  ministrations  he  frequently 
attended  and  for  whose  office  he  professes  the 
deepest  respect  did  not  set  him  a  particularly 
good  example.  For  instance  it  once  happened 


254  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

that  "the  curate  of  Laughton  came  to  the  shop 
in  the  forenoon,  and  he  having  bought  some 
things  of  me  (and  I  could  wish  he  had  paid 
for  them)  dined  with  me,  and  also  staid  in  the 
afternoon  till  he  got  in  liquor,  and  being  so 
complaisant  as  to  keep  him  company,  I  was 
quite  drunk.  How  do  I  detest  myself  for  being 
so  foolish ! " 

From  an  Englishman  we  expect  grumbles,  and 
we  get  them ;  for  instance,  in  1 757  we  read : 
"  Oh,  how  dull  is  trade,  how  very  scarce  is 
money,  never  did  I  know  so  bad  a  time  before." 
There  are  plenty  more.  Really  touching  entries 
record  the  last  Communion  and  the  death  of 
his  wife,  dear  Peggy,  but  less  than  a  month 
after  her  funeral,  alas,  "  not  one  of  us  went  to 
bed  sober;  which  folly  of  mine  makes  me  very 
uneasy.  Oh,  that  I  cannot  be  a  person  of  more 
resolution."  The  record  with  somewhat  weari- 
some frequency  acquaints  us  with  details  of  the 
most  swinish  and  bestial  orgies  in  which  all 
classes  of  the  community  got  very  drunk  together, 
"  danced,  pulled  wigs,  caps  and  hats  and  behaved 
more  like  mad  people  than  they  that  profess 
the  name  of  Christ."  Once  when  such  a  scene 
took  place  at  the  rectory  (which  was  not 
unusual)  "there  was  no  swearing  and  no  ill 
words  by  reason  of  which  Mr.  Porter  calls  it 
innocent  mirth,  but  I  in  opinion  differ  much 
therefrom."  Mr.  Porter,  the  Rector  of  East 
Hoathly,  seems  sometimes  to  have  preached 
good  sermons,  but  precept  was  not  followed  up 
by  example,  far  otherwise.  Once  Mr.  Porter 
in  a  condition  as  to  sobriety  not  unusual  with 
him  actually  called  on  Mr.  Turner  at  night, 
pulled  him  forcibly  out  of  bed,  and  compelled  him 


NEWHAVEN  255 

to  dance  in  costume  that  need  not  be  specified, 
while  the  rector  and  his  wife  drank  a  bottle  of 
wine  and  also  a  bottle  of  beer.  The  comment 
of  Mr.  Turner  on  this  outrageous  behaviour  is 
exceedingly  mild :  "  Now  let  anyone  call  in 
reason  to  his  assistance,  and  seriously  reflect  on 
what  I  have  before  recited,  and  they  will  join 
me  in  thinking  that  the  precepts  delivered  from 
the  pulpit  on  Sunday,  tho'  delivered  with  the 
greatest  ardour,  must  lose  a  great  deal  of  their 
efficacy  by  such  examples." 

On  June  10,  1761,  "was  fought  this  day  at 
Jones's,  a  main  of  cocks,  between  the  gentlemen 
of  Hothly  and  Pevensey.  Quere,  Is  there  a 
gentleman  in  either  of  the  places  that  was 
consernd?"  In  this  sentiment  we  need  have 
little  quarrel  with  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Turner, 
who  thirty  years  before  Rev.  T.  R.  Malthus 
published  his  laboured  Essay  on  Population  wrote 
his  own  view  on  the  same  subject,  which  is  very 
much  more  to  the  point.  "In  my  own  private 
oppinion,  I  think,  instead,  of  making  laws  to 
restrain  marriage,  it  would  be  more  to  the 
advantage  of  the  nation  to  give  encouragement 
to  it;  for  by  that  means  a  great  deal  of  debau- 
chery would,  in  all  probability,  be  prevented, 
and  a  great  increase  of  people  might  be  the 
consequence,  which,  I  presume,  would  be  real 
benefit  to  the  nation ;  and  I  think  it  is  the 
first  command  of  the  Parent  and  Governor  of 
the  universe,  'Increase  and  multiply,'  and  the 
observation  of  St.  Paul  is,  that  '  mai  riage  is 
honourable  in  all  men.' " 

Following  his  own  advice  Mr.  Turner  decided 
to  marry  again,  and  to  this  end  he  cultivated 
the  acquaintance  of  Miss  Molly  Hicks  of  Mailing ; 


256  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

he  does  not  speak  of  her  with  the  raptures  we 
might  hope  for,  and  confesses  to  being  "in  the 
even  very  dull  and  sleepy ;  this  courting  does 
not  well  agree  with  my  constitution,  and  perhaps 
it  may  be  only  taking  pains  to  create  more 
pain."  However,  "  she  comes  of  reputable  parents 
and  may  perhaps,  one  day  or  other,  have  a 
fortune."  This  was  half  the  battle,  and  they 
were  duly  married  by  Mr.  Porter.  Perhaps 
Molly  was  more  in  the  habit  of  nosing  into 
Mr.  Turner's  private  drawers  than  Peggy  had 
been,  perhaps  his  life  became  less  interesting  or 
more  strenuous ;  at  any  rate,  no  further  such 
confidential  memoirs  are  extant,  the  diary  comes 
to  an  end  long  before  one's  interest  in  it  has 
begun  to  evaporate. 

Newhaven  Harbour  is  at  present  by  far  the 
best  and  most  important  in  Sussex,  but  during 
the  eighteenth  century  its  authorities  seem  to 
have  been  less  alert  than  they  are  to-day;  a 
Lewes  paper  for  January  2,  1772,  contains  a 
warning  that  an  indignant  but  public-spirited 
skipper  seems  to  have  paid  for  as  an  advertise- 
ment :  "  Whereas  I,  Joseph  Hartley,  of  the 
William  from  Cowes,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
came  off  Newhaven  Harbour  on  the  29th  ult. 
and  could  not  get  in,  though  she  draws  but  six 
feet  and  a  half  of  water,  so  was  obliged  to  go 
to  Shoreham  where  I  lay  till  Thursday  upon 
great  Expences  and  had  during  that  time  a  hard 
Gale  of  Wind,  whereby  I  was  in  imminent  danger. 
This  is  therefore  to  caution  all  Captains  of  my 
Acquaintance  not  to  attempt  that  Harbour  till  it 
is  repaired.  Joseph  Hartley." 

Here  in  1848  landed  Louis  Philippe,  ex- King 
of  France,  who  had  styled  himself  the  First  of 


NEWHAVEN  257 

that  name  and  was  also  to  be  the  last.  Expensive 
piers  built  out  from  either  side  of  the  river 
mouth  have  greatly  improved  the  harbour,  which 
now  has  a  considerable  trade  in  addition  to  the 
double  daily  service  with  Dieppe  maintained  by 
the  Brighton  Railway.  The  steamers  can  be  dry- 
docked  on  floats,  a  certain  amount  of  ship- 
building goes  on,  and  Newhaven  has  the  peculiar 
merit  of  not  materially  transforming  its  surround- 
ings, one  seems  suddenly  to  come  into  the  middle 
of  a  busy  port  from  the  open  Downs ;  the  road 
to  Brighton  in  fact  over  the  grass-grown  and 
furze-dotted  chalk  hills  is  surprisingly  wild  and 
lonely.  It  was  this  district  that  particularly 
inspired  Rudyard  Kipling's  magnificent  poem  about 
the  "  blunt,  bow-headed,  whale-backed  Downs "  of 
Sussex  by  the  sea. 

Clean  of  officious  fence  or  hedge, 

Half -wild  and  wholly  tame, 
The  old  turf  cloaks  the  white  cliff  edge 

As  when  the  Romans  came. 
What  sign  of  those  that  fought  and  died 

At  shift  of  sword  and  sword, 
The  barrow  and  the  camp  abide, 

The  sunlight  and  the  sward. 

Here  leaps  ashore  the  full  sou'west 

All  heavy-winged  with  brine, 
Here  lies  above  the  folded  crest 

The  Channel's  lifted  line  ; 
And  here  the  sea-fogs  lap  and  cling, 

And  here,  each  warning  each, 
The  sheep-bells  and  the  ship-bells  ring 

Along  the  hidden  beach. 

We  have  no  waters  to  delight 
Our  broad  and  brookless  vales — 

Only  the  dewpond  on  the  height 
Unfed,  that  never  fails, 
11 


258  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

Whereby  no  tattered  herbage  tells 

Which  way  the  season  flies — 
Only  our  wind-bit  thyme  that  smells 

Like  dawn  in  Paradise. 

Here  through  the  strong  and  shadeless  days 

A  tinkling  silence  thrills  ; 
Or  little,  lost,  Down  churches  praise 

The  Lord  who  made  the  hills. 
But  here  the  old  Gods  guard  their  round, 

And  in  her  secret  heart 
The  heathen-kingdom  Wilfrid  found 

Dreams,  as  she  dwells,  apart. 

Much  fairly  good  poetry  has  been  written  about 
Sussex,  and  some  of  it  by  Sussexians,  but  it  must 
be  mournfully  confessed  that  we  owe  the  very 
best  to  those  whom  Sussex  has  inspired  but  has 
not  bred.  There  are  Sussex  poets  for  whom  a 
very  high  rank  may  be  claimed,  to  mention  only 
Thomas  Sackville,  John  Fletcher,  Thomas  Otway, 
William  Collins,  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley,  but  there  is 
very  little  of  Sussex  about  them,  save  only  their 
origin.  The  county  has  made  a  liberal  contribu- 
tion to  English  literature,  but  we  have  nothing 
like  a  Sussex  School  to  put  beside  those  of  the 
Lakes  or  of  the  Scottish  Lowlands. 

On  the  cliffs  opposite  Telscombe  a  new  town  is 
projected,  but  though  a  post-office  is  provided 
there  is  very  little  more.  The  chief  attraction 
of  the  place  is  the  view  straight  over  the  Channel 
from  the  top  of  the  chalk  cliffs.  Behind  spreads 
furze-covered  Down,  and  it  is  extraordinary  how 
unlikely  it  seems  there  are  any  houses  in  a  certain 
combe  till  one  suddenly  comes  right  on  the  old 
village.  It  is  one  of  the  loneliest  in  Sussex, 
though  close  to  large  towns — on  the  map. 
The  church  has  nave  and  north  aise  of  late 


NEWHAVEN  259 

Norman  character,  the  bottoms  of  the  round 
arches  of  the  arcade  bevelled  to  fit  the  caps  of 
the  pillars.  The  tower  and  the  chancel  are  a  little 
later,  and  the  latter  is  separated  from  its  north 
chapel  by  two  arches,  the  round  pillar  having  a 
carved  cap  with  corner  ornaments,  as  at  Rodmell, 
&c.  A  lovely  stretch  of  Down  turf  extends  to 
the  Ouse  at  Piddinghoe. 

There  are  four  little  villages  on  the  east  side 
of  the  valley,  between  Newhaven  and  Lewes ; 
Denton  is  tucked  away  in  a  combe  of  the  Downs, 
and  possesses  a  flint  fragment  of  the  old  priest's 
house,  which  has  a  trefoiled  lancet  and  dates 
from  about  1300.  The  church  is  small  and  chiefly 
fourteenth-century  work,  the  rood  turret  and  stair 
remaining  perfect  on  the  south ;  there  are  older 
portions ;  the  font  is  late  Norman  and  tub-shaped, 
with  a  trellis- work  pattern.  The  glory  has  rather 
departed  from  South  Heighten,  which  stands  high 
on  the  Downs,  and  an  iron  shed  occupies  the  site 
and  attempts  to  fill  the  place  of  the  old  church. 
Tarring  Neville,  on  low  ground,  with  the  Downs 
rising  just  behind,  has  a  little  church  of  Early 
English  character,  but  built  at  different  times. 
The  chancel  is  very  long,  with  deeply  splayed 
lancets  and  a  square  low  side  window  ;  the  south 
aisle  opens  by  heavy  arches  of  chalk  with  a  round 
pillar,  and  has  a  font  built  into  the  sill  of  a 
window.  The  exterior  is  all  mantled  with 
cement,  and  on  the  tower  appears  the  date  of 
the  improvement,  1826. 

Under  the  heights  of  Mount  Caburn,  close  to 
where  the  Glynde  Reach  enters  the  Ouse,  stands 
Beddingham  among  its  trees.  The  church  was 
originally  Norman,  and  a  little  window  in  that 
style  remains  on  the  north  side.  Later  arches 


260  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

have  been  pierced  for  aisles,  and  on  the  south 
the  arcade  is  very  interesting  late  twelfth-century 
work,  resembling  that  at  Telscombe,  Rodmell,  and 
St.  Mary  Westout  (Anne),  Lewes.  One  of  the 
two  pillars  and  both  responds  are  round,  with 
little  corbels  at  the  corners  of  the  square  abaci ; 
some  of  the  corbels  are  very  plain,  others 
are  evidently  caricatures  of  people  who  were 
doubtless  famous,  locally  at  any  rate,  in  their 
day,  but  whose  memory  has  otherwise  faded  away. 
Mediaeval  caricatures  cut  in  the  solid  stone,  by 
which  monks  and  friars,  secular  priests  and  others, 
poured  ridicule  on  those  who  seemed  to  deserve 
it,  were  at  times  little  inferior  in  ingenuity  to 
our  modern  cartoons,  and  they  were  far  more 
enduring.  In  monastic  churches,  for  instance,  we 
sometimes  see  a  fox  robed  as  friar  holding  forth 
to  a  congregation  of  geese.  The  north  aisle  is 
a  little  later,  and  the  chancel  is  Decorated  ;  the 
battlemented  tower,  built  partly  of  Norman 
materials,  has  chequer-work  of  flint  and  stone, 
while  its  uncusped  windows  show  its  date  to  be 
probably  after  1500. 


XIV      Seaford 


N    the    Church    of   St.    Michael    at    Lewes    is 
a    well-known    monument    to    Sir    Nicholas 
Pelham,    Knight,    and    to    Dame    Anne,    his 
wife,  who  was  one  of   the  Sackville  family. 
He  died  in  1559,  and  the  epitaph  declares — 

"His  val"  proof e  Her  Manie  vertues  prayse 
Cannot  be  marshalld  in  this  narrow  roome 
His  brave  exploit  in  great  King  Henrys  Day's 
Among  the  worthyes  hath  a  worthier  Toombe  ; 
What  time  ye  French  sought  to  have  sackt  Sea-Foord 
This  Pelham  did  repell  them  back  aboord." 

This  little  poem  has  been  very  frequently, 
though  often  not  very  accurately,  quoted,  but  it  is 
not  so  well  known  as  it  should  be.  Otherwise  the 
world  would  know  how  to  pronounce  Seaford, 
instead  of  allowing  a  slovenly,  inaccurate,  and 
wholly  inadmissible  rendering  to  become  exceed- 
ingly common,  and  to  threaten  to  oust  altogether 
the  correct  and  very  much  more  euphonious  form. 
A  Sussex  countryman,  however,  questioned  about 
the  way  to  Seaford,  declared  he  had  never  heard 

361 


262  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

of  the  place,  but  being  asked  if  he  were  a 
stranger  in  those  parts,  asserted  that  he  had 
lived  his  whole  life  at  Seaford.  This  was  not 
stupidity. 

Sussex  suffers  very  much  from  the  vulgarising 
of  her  proper  names,  and  few  take  the  trouble 
to  remember,  for  instance — 

"Herringly,  Chidd'nly,  and  Hoadly 
Three  lies  and  all  true." 

An  eminent  London  barrister  was  once  at 
church  in  one  of  the  villages  named,  and  hearing 
that  the  offertory  was  on  behalf  of  the  parish 
schools,  he  had  provided  two  and  sixpence  to  put 
into  the  plate.  Unfortunately,  in  the  course  of 
the  sermon  it  came  out  that  the  vicar  did  not 
know  how  to  pronounce  the  name  of  his  own 
parish,  with  the  result  that  the  righteously 
indignant  lawyer  substituted  a  halfpenny  for  the 
half-crown  when  the  offertory-bag  came  round. 
If  every  mispronouncer  of  Sussex  names  lost  two 
shillings  and  fivepence-halfpenny  for  his  want  of 
care  there  would  be  hope  of  better  things ! 

We  have  a  contemporary  account  by  an 
eleventh-century  monk  named  Drogo  of  the  dis- 
graceful theft  from  a  monastery  dedicated  to  St. 
Andrew,  near  Seaford,  of  the  relics  of  St.  Lewinna, 
a  British  Christian  girl  martyred  by  the  Saxons 
about  680-690  A.D.  The  religious  house  to  which 
the  relics  properly  belonged  has  not  been 
identified,  though  unpromising  efforts  have  been 
made  to  connect  Lewes  with  Lewinna.  In  1058 
a  Flemish  monk  named  Balgar,  under  pretext  of 
wishing  to  say  his  prayers,  visited  the  monastery, 
and  as  he  seemed  to  be  an  honest  and  God-fearing 


SEAFORD  263 

man  he  was  left  in  charge  of  the  church  when 
the  priest  had  occasion  to  go  away  for  a  while. 
Instead  of  merely  performing  his  devotions  in 
that  holy  place,  in  defiance  of  all  laws  of  hos- 
pitality and  of  common  honesty  he  actually 
stole  the  precious  relics,  and  sent  them  to  Bergues, 
near  Dunkirk,  where  they  were  long  preserved. 
Drogo,  far  from  professing  his  horror  at  this 
discreditable  sacrilege,  bids  us  believe  that  this 
unscrupulous  scoundrel  and  common  thief  was 
"  an  ascetic  and  very  religious  man,  and  especially 
glowing  with  the  zeal  of  happily  dwelling  with 
the  saints."  In  quite  other  company  we  trust 
the  spoiler  of  our  Sussex  shrine  spends  his  time. 
The  same  account  describes  Sevordt,  "in  order 
to  explain  to  the  ignorant  this  same  harbour  is 
of  so  narrow  an  entrance  that  scarcely  can  two 
boats  enter  it  side  by  side.  On  either  hand  two 
headlands  raised  to  heaven  slope  down  with  a 
gradual  hill  by  which  every  wave  is  broken  when 
stormy  winds  arise.  There  neither  anchor  holds 
the  ships,  nor  rope  checks  them  when  they  roll, 
but  securely  remaining  by  themselves  alone,  they 
do  not  fear  at  all  either  the  east,  nor  the  north, 
nor  the  north-west-by-west  winds."  (This  sounds 
rather  like  a  reminiscence  of  the  first  few  pages 
of  Virgil's  ^Eneid.)  Speaking  of  the  harbour, 
Horsfield  quotes  a  document  written  by  one 
Elliot  about  1765:  "The  exit  of  the  Lewes 
river  till  the  time  of  Elizabeth  was,  as  I  have 
been  credibly  informed,  a  little  beyond  the  town 
of  Seaford  to  the  east,  where  the  cliff  first 
begins  its  elevation  above  the  level  ground,  and 
where  the  old  fort  stood  to  guard  the  entrance ; 
and  that  in  Elizabeth's  reign  the  sea,  in  a  storm, 
broke  through  the  beach  bank  at  Bean's  Ware- 


264  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

houses,  just  below  Bishopstone,  and  formed  what 
is  now  called  the  Old  Harbour,  which  was  in  use 
till  the  Newhaven  was  made  as  a  safer  exit." 

Seaford  was  a  corporate  member  of  the  Cinque 
Ports  dependent  on  Hastings,  and  the  farthest 
point  westward  to  which  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
federation  extended.  Of  the  days  of  its  mercan- 
tile prosperity  there  is  an  interesting  relic  in  the 
shape  of  a  well-built  thirteenth -century  crypt 
for  storing  goods  behind  a  house  in  Church 
Street;  it  is  vaulted  in  two  bays,  and  from  a 
couple  of  foliage  bosses  unmoulded  ribs  extend 
and  die  into  the  walls ;  the  entrance  has  a  stair 
in  the  thickness  of  the  wall  and  lancet  door- 
ways ;  there  are  traces  of  a  wider  opening  for 
merchandise.  In  1544  the  town  received  royal 
incorporation,  and  its  burgesses  (not  barons  as 
in  the  Cinque  Ports  themselves)  were  permitted 
to  use  a  seal  with  a  three-masted  ship. 

The  town  records  are  of  considerable  interest, 
and  have  been  largely  published  in  the  S.A.C. 
In  the  25th  year  of  Elizabeth  John  Comber  got 
into  trouble  "for  markyng  of  thre  duckes  of 
Edward  Warwickes  and  two  ducks  of  Symon 
Brighte  with  his  own  marke,  and  cutting  owt 
of  their  markes."  Two  years  later,  the  jury 
present  that  the  cucking  stole,  pillory,  and  butts 
(for  archery)  are  in  decay.  In  the  44th  year  of 
Elizabeth  the  vicar  was  fined  for  not  mending 
the  highway  called  Le  Crouch,  which  he  had 
actually  cultivated  on  his  own  account.  On 
Christmas  Eve,  1652,  accounts  were  settled  up 
"  from  the  beginning  of  ye  world,"  while  after 
the  Restoration,  in  1663,  thirteen  people  were 
had  up  for  not  having  been  at  church  for  a 
month. 


SEAFORD  265 

The  church  that  they  should  have  attended, 
dedicated  to  St.  Leonard,  is  of  considerable 
interest.  The  tower  has  Norman  arches  whose 
jambs  have  corner-shafts  north  and  south,  over 
them  are  little  splayed  windows  of  the  same 
date  (early  twelfth  century),  and  there  were 
evidently  aisles,  not  transepts.  If  the  road  has 
been  moved  it  is  possible  that  this  tower  may 
have  been  central  formerly,  there  is  no  indica- 
tion of  the  original  arrangement  of  the  west 
wall.  Corresponding  with  the  clearstory  of  the 
church  the  tower  has  an  Early  English  stage ; 
above  is  most  remarkable  Perpendicular  work, 
two  stages,  each  widely  receding  with  sloping 
set-offs.  This  is  supported  by  thick  walling 
within  the  old  Norman  structure,  increasing  the 
total  thickness  of  the  walls  at  the  bottom  to 
nearly  nine  feet ;  apparently  the  foundations 
were  insecure.  Flint  crosses  are  inlaid  with 
excellent  effect.  The  nave  has  two  large  Early 
English  arches  on  each  side,  the  round  pillars 
have  capitals  with  stiff  foliage,  interrupted  on 
the  south  for  remarkable  little  sculptures  repre- 
senting the  Crucifixion  and  other  subjects.  The 
clearstory  lancets  have  shafts  only  outside. 
Part  of  the  north  aisle  belonged  to  the  original 
Norman  church,  the  chancel  is  entirely  modern. 
An  early  bas-relief  of  St.  Michael  and  the  Dragon 
was  dug  up  years  ago  in  the  churchyard. 

Seaford  stands  on  the  east  side  of  the  level 
flats  at  the  mouth  of  the  Ouse,  Newhaven  being 
about  two  miles  to  the  west.  It  is  rapidly  being 
developed  as  a  seaside  resort  and  has  a  fine 
esplanade,  though  otherwise  the  place  has  a 
somewhat  unfinished  look,  the  character  of  a 
quiet  country  town  is  for  ever  abolished,  but 


266  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

many  "  eligible  sites  "  still  await  their  villas.  The 
situation  is  very  pleasant,  and  immediately  to 
the  east  rises  a  projecting  spur  of  the  Downs,  on 
whose  summit  is  an  ancient  camp,  once  a  rough 
oval  in  shape  as  it  appears,  but  half  has  fallen 
into  the  sea.  Burials  with  broken  flint  imple- 
ments have  been  discovered  within  its  area;  a 
Roman  cemetery  was  near  by.  Digging  in  1911 
showed  the  agger  to  be  very  largely  of  shingle 
that  looked  rather  as  if  it  had  been  brought  up 
from  the  shore ;  overlying  the  chalk  are  beds  of 
very  clayey  sand  whose  colour  varies  considerably. 
It  is  a  most  pleasant  spot  only  ten  minutes' 
walk  from  the  town,  sea-gulls  scream,  cowslips 
blossom,  golf -balls  fly  about,  and  to  the  eastward 
along  the  shore  just  beyond  Cuckmere  Haven 
spread  the  Seven  Sisters,  where  the  undulating 
Downs  have  been  broken  into  cliffs  by  the  sea. 
The  first  four  of  them  look  like  two  pairs  of 
twins,  and  are  higher  and  more  striking  than 
the  rest.  There  kestrels,  ravens  and  peregrine 
falcons  have  their  homes  ;  a  narrow  ledge  by  the 
camp  itself  overhanging  the  sea  called  Puck 
Church  Parlour  was  once  the  abode  of  some  foxes. 
Just  below  the  camp-crowned  hill,  at  the  end 
of  the  Seaford  esplanade,  is  the  westernmost  of 
the  martello  towers  built  about  a  century  ago, 
or  rather  more,  all  along  the  ancient  Saxon 
shore,  when  Napoleon  was  planning  his  invasion 
of  England.  They  are  round  towers  of  brick, 
the  wall  hugely  thick  with  stairs  and  passages 
within  its  masonry,  as  in  the  keeps  of  old 
Norman  castles;  the  hardest  cement  serves  for 
mortar,  and  a  central  pillar  supports  a  heavy 
vault,  on  top  of  which  a  revolving  gun  was  once 
mounted.  So  substantial  is  the  work,  that  at 


SEAFORD  267 

the  tower  at  Norman's  Bay  the  central  column 
was  in  the  spring  of  1911  taken  down,  leaving 
the  vault  to  rest  with  perfect  security  on  the 
surrounding  wall. 

During  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury an  honoured  resident  of  Seaford  was  the 
hospitable  and  genial  doctor,  Charles  Verral. 
The  death  of  a  daughter  caused  him  to  write  a 
poem  that  originally  appeared  in  the  Brighton 
Herald,  a  paper  that  well  maintains  its  literary 
traditions.  Most  of  us  probably  will  be  able  to 
agree  with  Charles  Fleet  (Glimpses  of  our  Ances- 
tors in  Sussex)  that  the  lines  "are  amongst  the 
most  touching  and  beautiful  that  a  poet  has 
ever  penned  in  the  bitterness  of  a  death-grief." 

"We've  lain  her  in  the  cold  churchyard, 

Beneath  a  mound  of  clay ; 
Lov'd  as  she  was,  we've  left  her  there, 
To  loathsome  worms  a  prey. 

And  lo !  the  mist  is  on  the  hill, 

The  rain  is  driving  fast, 
The  evening  skies  are  wild  and  dark 

And  chilly  blows  the  blast. 

And  now  this  roof — for  many  a  year, 

In  many  a  storm  so  wild — 
This  humble  roof  has  been  a  home, 

A  shelter  for  my  child. 

And  now  this  roof,  her  father's  roof, 

Can  be  her  home  no  more — 
How  shall  I  close  mine  house  to-night? 

How  bear  to  bar  my  door? 

To  shut  her  out  for  whom  so  oft 

It  gladly  opened  wide ! 
To  shut  her  out  that  was  so  long 

My  joy,  my  hope,  my  pride  ! 


268  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

We,  in  these  sheltering  walls,  to-night, 

On  beds  so  soft  and  warm, 
Shall  rest  uninjur'd  by  the  shower. 

And  shelter'd  from  the  storm. 

But  she  is  in  her  cold,  damp  bed  ; 

And  o'er  her  lonely  grave 
The  driving  shower  will  wildly  beat, 

The  ruthless  whirlwind  rave. 

The  livid  fires  will  glare  around, 

And  pealing  thunders  roar  ; — 
How  can  I  close  mine  house  to-night? 

How  bear  to  bar  my  door? 

But  wildly,  idly  flows  my  verse  : 
How  vain  are  thoughts  like  these  ! 

She  heeds  not  now  the  driving  shower, 
The  tempest  or  the  breeze.   .   .  . 

Untroubled  in  the  silent  tomb 

She  lies  in  peaceful  sleep, 
While  I  in  this  wide  world  am  left 

To  wander  and  to  weep  ! " 

The  village  of  East  Blatchington  lying  a  little 
inland  is  now  absorbed  in  Seaford.  There  is  a 
small  church  with  Norman  tower  and  nave  and 
Early  English  chancel  whose  two  sedilia  are 
divided  by  a  shaft ;  the  building  is  much  altered 
and  not  very  easy  to  interpret.  There  was  a 
south  aisle  once,  and  in  the  south  wall  of  the 
nave  is  a  rather  puzzling  two-light  Decorated 
recess  with  shafts.  The  tower  is  surmounted  by 
a  shingled  spire,  the  churchyard  is  beautifully 
kept. 

A  mile  away  to  the  north-west,  right  among 
the  Downs,  is  the  little  village  of  Bishopstone, 
famous  for  its  Saxon  church.  The  original 
portions  are  the  large  south  porch  and,  so  far 


SEAFORD  269 

as  it  is  let  alone,  the  nave ;  they  are  built  chiefly 
of  a  very  coarse  limestone,  and  display  long  and 
short  work  with  the  general  characteristics  of 
pre-Conquest  architecture  ;  the  porch  has  a  sun- 
dial over  the  outer  door  inscribed  with  the  very 
common  Saxon  name  EADRIC,  preceded  by  a 
cross.  The  tower  in  four  stages,  each  slightly 
receding,  the  lower  one  opening  by  a  plain  arch 
into  the  church,  the  upper  ones  with  corner- 
shafts  and  the  highest  windows  double,  is  an 
excellent  example  of  early  Norman  work.  About 
contemporary  or  slightly  later  is  the  wall  of  the 
(north)  aisle,  pierced  by  little  windows.  Belonging 
to  the  Transition  period,  Norman  to  Early  English, 
is  the  most  unusual  arrangement  of  the  east 
end,  an  arch  opening  into  the  chancel  and  a 
second  into  a  holy  of  holies  or  sanctuary. 
These  arches  are  pointed  and  well  moulded,  the 
chancel  has  a  blind  round  arch  on  the  south 
with  foliage  caps,  and  another  on  the  north 
opening  to  the  aisle  with  scallop  caps.  The 
sanctuary  is  vaulted  with  corner-shafts  to  the 
transverse  ribs,  and  smaller  ones  to  the  wall  ribs 
(three  in  each  angle),  scallop  caps  with  added 
details  on  a  tiny  scale.  The  windows  here  are 
round  -  headed.  Both  in  conception  and  detail 
this  work  is  most  striking ;  among  other  orna- 
ments there  is  dog-tooth  elaborated  by  little 
holes  in  the  leaves.  The  nave  is  separated  from 
its  aisle  by  an  Early  English  arcade  of  two 
arches,  round  pillar  and  responds.  In  the  tower 
is  a  remarkable  coffin  slab,  three  circles  enclosed 
by  cable  moulding  contain  representations  of  the 
Cross,  the  Agnus  Dei,  and  two  doves  drinking 
from  the  same  vase. 

There  is  a  tablet  to  James  Hurdis  (1763-1801), 


270  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

the  poet  and  Oxford  professor  who  attempted 
to  vindicate  his  Alma  Mater  from  Gibbon's 
unkindly  criticisms.  He  was  the  author  of  the 
Village  Curate — all  about  Bishopstone,  his  native 
place,  to  whose  vicarage  he  was  appointed  in 
1791.  It  contains  the  rather  well-known  passage — 

' '  It  wins  my  admiration 
To  view  the  structure  of  that  little  work, 
A  bird's  nest.     Mark  it  well,  within,  without ; 
No  tool  had  he  that  wrought,  no  knife  to  cut, 
No  nail  to  fix,  no  bodkin  to  insert, 
No  glue  to  join  :  his  little  beak  was  all  ; 
And  yet  how  neatly  finished  1     What  nice  hand, 
With  every  implement  and  means  of  Art, 
And  twenty  years'  apprenticeship  to  boot, 
Could  make  me  such  another?     Fondly  then 
We  boast  of  excellence,  whose  noblest  skill 
Instinctive  genius  foils." 

Just  over  a  single  ridge  of  Downs  from 
Seaford  is  the  water-gap  through  which  the 
Cuckmere,  whose  sources  are  largely  in  Heath- 
field  Park,  winds  like  a  serpent  to  the  sea.  Here 
were  the  marshes  that  gave  the  river  its  name. 
The  main  road  to  Eastbourne  crosses  it  at  Exceat, 
hardly  more  than  a  farm,  whose  cattle  pasture 
in  the  flat  meadows  by  the  river  below.  Half  a 
mile  away  is  the  sequestered  Down  village  of  West 
Dean.  The  ruined  manor-house,  largely  of 
worked  flints,  is  overgrown  with  wallflower  and 
other  vegetation ;  the  most  interesting  part  is  the 
round  dove-cot,  whose  plinth  and  flat  arched  door- 
way have  some  ashlar  that  seems  to  be  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  The  church  has  early  Norman 
fragments,  and  the  walls  are  of  different  periods; 
but  existing  details,  particularly  two  sepulchral 
recesses  of  different  kinds  of  stone  and  a  trefoiled 


SEAFORD  271 

lancet,  belong  to  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  The  tower  is  oblong,  and  has  strange- 
looking  lappets  to  the  low  shingled  spire.  In  the 
chancel  are  some  early  seventeenth-century  monu- 
ments of  the  Thomas  family. 

But  by  far-  the  most  interesting  feature  of  the 
village  is  the  late  thirteenth-century  parsonage, 
built  of  stone,  retaining  its  original  features  and 
still  used  for  its  original  purpose.  It  stands 
north  and  south  just  west  of  the  church;  owing 
to  the  slope  of  the  ground  there  is  a  small  base- 
ment in  addition  to  the  two  stories  at  the  south 
end.  In  the  centre  of  the  north  wall  is  a 
chimney,  and  there  are  stone  fireplaces  in  the 
hall,  which  has  an  open  timber  roof,  and  in  the 
chamber  below.  The  hall  is  lighted  by  double 
windows,  trefoil-headed,  and  these  have  oak 
shutters  that  seem  to  be  original.  The  other 
windows  are  almost  all  "  square-headed  trefoil " 
or  square-headed.  The  original  stair  is  in  a 
gable-topped  turret  adjoining  the  chimney ;  a 
turret  at  the  south  end  was  for  sanitary  purposes. 
The  hall  is  about  20  feet  by  14  feet ;  the  timbers 
of  the  interior  are  very  largely  the  original  ones. 

About  two  miles  up  the  beautiful  valley  in 
which  the  Cuckmere  makes  its  way  through  the 
Downs  lies  the  village  of  Litlington,  a  distant 
view  of  which  appears  in  the  photograph  opposite, 
p.  270.  The  church  has  some  plain  Norman 
features :  the  chancel  has  a  barrel  roof  with 
miniature  hammer-beams,  there  is  a  Perpen- 
dicular tomb  of  Easter  Sepulchre  type,  and  the 
building  was  rather  awkwardly  lengthened  west- 
ward during  the  fifteenth  century,  a  stair  being 
wedged  in  on  the  north  side  to  reach  the  wooden 
tower  and  spire  erected  over  the  extension, 


272  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

The  next  village  is  Lullington  on  the  side  of 
the  Downs ;  trees  surround  its  churchyard,  in 
which  remains  only  the  small  chancel  of  Early 
English  date,  a  tiny  tower  and  spire  having  been 
erected  on  its  west  gable.  Though  the  whole 
population,  to  the  number  of  about  sixteen,  might 
be  comfortably  seated  there,  it  claims  (with  many 
others)  to  be  the  least  commodious  church  in 
England. 

Just  below,  down  in  the  valley,  is  the  large 
village  of  Alfriston,  which  still  retains  the 
steps  and  a  part  of  the  shaft  of  the  cross, 
features  common  enough  in  parts  of  the  country 
but  rare  in  Sussex  (p.  180).  Near  by  is  the  Star 
Inn,  a  famous  hostelry  that  dates  apparently  from 
the  fifteenth  century,  but  has  been  altered  since. 
The  upper  story  projects  both  in  front  and  at 
the  side,  and  the  massive  corner-post  represents 
some  animals  grasping  a  staff.  On  either  side  of 
the  door  brackets  rise  from  shafts,  and  each  has 
an  ecclesiastical  figure  in  relief.  The  three  win- 
dows of  the  upper  story  project  as  oriels,  and  on 
their  supports  are  carved  a  soldier  at  war  with  a 
dragon,  a  shield,  and  a  couple  of  serpents.  A  classic 
cornice  runs  along  the  eaves ;  the  pipes  are  dated 
1766 ;  the  roof  is  covered  with  stone  slabs.  The 
interior  has  fine  old  beams,  and  in  one  place  the 
monogram  I.H.S.  It  is  clear  that  the  founders 
were  more  ecclesiastical  in  their  tastes  than  the 
builders  of  most  modern  hotels,  and  its  principal 
purpose  may  well  have  been  to  shelter  pilgrims. 
Its  walls  still  echo  at  times  with  the  shouts  of 
as  happy  a  company  as  those  who  attended 
Chaucer  to  Canterbury.  At  the  corner  is  the 
curious  wooden  monster  that  once  formed  the 
figure-head  of  a  ship,  which  appears  by  the  initial 


SfiAFORB  273 

of  this  chapter.  The  entire  village  is  picturesque  ; 
it  is  little  modernised  on  the  whole,  and  the 
Downs  form  an  ideal  background  to  the  green 
meadows  through  which  the  river  flows  in  several 
channels.  The  church  is  a  large  cruciform  but 
aisleless  structure  of  early  Perpendicular  date,  the 
walls  of  neatly  squared  flints  with  stone  quoins 
and  windows,  the  low  tower  surmounted  by  a  shin- 
gled spire.  The  interior  is  spacious  but  rather 
plain,  somewhat  recalling  Poynings ;  the  semi- 
octagonal  responds  of  the  tower  arches  have 
concave  sides.  Sedilia  and  piscina  with  octagonal 
shafts  and  crockets  above,  and  an  Easter  Sepulchre 
monument  opposite,  give  a  rather  striking  effect 
to  the  chancel,  but  the  loss  of  all  the  original 
stained  glass  except  a  single  small  figure  of 
St.  Alphege,  and  the  comparative  bareness  of  the 
walls,  gives  the  interior  generally  a  rather  cold 
appearance.  The  window  tracery  has  not  entirely 
lost  the  spirit  of  the  earlier  Decorated  style. 

Just  outside  the  churchyard,  near  a  huge  hollow 
tree,  is  the  old  timber-framed  vicarage  contem- 
porary with  the  existing  church,  that  is  to  say, 
built  towards  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

In  the  centre  is  a  hall,  23  feet  by  17  feet,  with 
open  timber  roof,  tie-beam  on  brackets  and  king- 
post sustaining  a  purlin  under  the  collars ;  at 
either  end  are  rooms  in  two  stories,  the  whole 
projecting  beyond  the  hall  on  the  west,  on  the 
east  only  the  upper  story.  With  the  eastern 
rooms  the  hall  has  no  internal  connection,  with 
the  western  it  communicates  by  two  remarkable 
doors  with  flat  ogee  arches,  all  of  oak,  over  them 
is  a  moulded  and  embattled  beam  that  looks 
rather  as  though  it  had  been  planned  to  sustain 
the  rood  loft  of  a  church.  The  hall  floor  is  of 

18 


274  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

muddy  cement,  the  roof  timbers  are  much 
blackened  by  smoke,  and  the  brick  chimneys  are 
obviously  later  than  the  rest,  the  original  fire  was 
probably  in  the  middle  of  the  floor.  A  timber 
arch  constructed  of  the  root  pieces  of  oak  forms 
the  hall  doorway.  A  very  similar  priest's  house 
exists  at  West  Hoathly,  in  Sussex,  but  it  has 
rooms  only  at  one  end  of  the  hall,  and  its 
roof  is  covered  with  stone  slabs  instead  of,  as  at 
Alfriston,  with  a  widely  overhanging  thatch. 
After  having  been  long  in  a  dilapidated  state 
the  old  Alfriston  vicarage  has  been  purchased  and 
repaired  by  the  National  Trust  for  Places  of 
Historic  Interest. 

The  mediaeval  clergy  houses  which  Sussex  is  for- 
tunate enough  to  possess  do  not  differ  in  any 
marked  manner  from  other  domestic  buildings  of 
the  same  period.  Their  occupants  were  probably 
married  as  a  rule,  and  lived  very  much  the  same  life 
as  other  men.  That  the  mediaeval  secular  clergy, 
as  distinguished  from  their  regular  or  monastic 
colleagues,  were  always  unmarried  is  a  common 
but  perfectly  erroneous  impression.  From  time  to 
time  well-meaning  reformers,  up  to  and  including 
Queen  Elizabeth  herself,  sought  to  impose  celibacy 
upon  them,  and  sometimes  used  abusive,  and  as  we 
should  now  think  it  rather  libellous,  expressions 
about  their  wives  ;  the  result,  however,  was  invari- 
ably that  the  parish  clergy  continued  to  follow  the 
advice  of  St.  Paul.  One  such  futile  attempt  is 
rather  amusingly  set  forth  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle  under  date  1129.  "When  they  came 
thither  the  meeting  began  on  the  Monday  and 
lasted  till  the  Friday,  and  it  came  out  that  it  was 
all  concerning  the  wives  of  archdeacons  and  priests, 
that  they  should  part  with  them  by  St.  Andrew's 


SEAFORD  275 

day ;  and  that  he  who  would  not  do  this,  should 
forego  his  church,  his  house  and  his  home  and 
never  be  permitted  to  claim  them  again.  This  was 
ordered  by  William,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and 
all  the  bishops  of  England  ;  and  the  King  gave 
them  leave  to  depart,  and  so  they  went  home,  and 
these  decrees  were  in  no  respect  observed,  for  all 
kept  their  wives,  by  the  king's  permission,  even  as 
before." 


XV.     n      Beady  Head  &  Eafthournc 


IGH  on  the  Downs,  just  inland  from  the 
Seven  Sisters,  a  conspicuous  landmark 
from  far  around,  stands  the  tiny  village  of 
Friston,  marked  chiefly  by  a  windmill  and  a  church. 
The  latter,  though  a  tiny  sanctuary,  is  of  considerable 
interest,  as  indeed  to  the  lover  of  our  history  are 
most  of  the  old  churches  of  Sussex.  The  walls  of 
the  nave  are  very  early  Norman,  or  just  possibly 
Saxon,  and  an  original  door  and  fairly  wide  window 
remain  walled  up.  The  south  door  in  actual  use 
is  still  Norman  though  of  later  late.  The  little 
chancel  with  four  rather  flat,  round  arches,  one 
opening  into  the  nave,  two  forming  arcades  on 
north  and  south  walls,  and  the  fourth,  differently 
arranged,  making  a  recess  for  the  altar  is  Decorated 
work  ;  the  roof  of  the  nave  is  early  Perpendicular 
with  extremely  massive  moulded  beams  that  leave 
an  enormous  margin  of  safety ;  the  eastern  tie-beam 
is  strangely  bowed  downwards  to  support  the  rood ; 
heavy  timbering  and  two  great  buttresses  without 

276 


BEACHY  HEAD  AND  EASTBOURNE     277 

sustain  the  square  bell-cot  at  the  western  end. 
Monuments  to  the  family  of  Selwyn  begin  with  a 
brass  of  1539,  and  end  with  a  finely  carved  marble 
tablet  of  1706.  A  Jacobean  monument  of  1613 
shows  us  three  poor  little  dead  babies  and  recalls 
the  sorrows  of  three  centuries  ago. 

A  very  steep  descent  by  a  flint-strewn  road  leads 
into  the  valley  which  looks  through  Birling  Gap  to 
the  Channel,  and  a  fourteenth-century  coffin  slab  in 
East  Dean  church  bears  the  arms  of  the  turbulent 
family  of  Bardolf,  who  for  centuries  were  seised  of 
its  manor.  A  much  earlier  relic  of  long  past  days 
is  the  flint  church  tower  which  was  built  shortly 
after  the  Norman  Conquest,  obviously  for  purposes 
of  defence ;  it  is  in  three  stages,  each  slightly 
receding  with  very  narrow  windows.  The  lower 
stage  formed  a  chapel  and  an  eastern  arch  opened 
into  a  little  apse,  whose  foundations  still  remain ; 
it  is  to  a  small  extent  built  of  Roman  materials. 
Several  unimportant  villas  have  been  found  along 
this  shore.  On  the  south  of  the  tower,  touching 
but  hardly  incorporating  it,  nave  and  chancel 
have  been  added,  and  as  is  so  often  the  case  they 
are  not  in  the  same  straight  line ;  the  nave  seems 
late  Norman  work,  the  chancel  is  a  little  less 
ancient  and  has  lancets  with  banded  shafts,  but 
original  features  in  both  cases  have  been  greatly 
destroyed.  The  Norman  font,  partly  old  and  partly 
new,  has  interlacing  circles  with  pellets  above 
and  cable  moulding  below. 

The  pulpit  is  a  fine  carved  Jacobean  example 
with  sounding-board  or  canopy.  The  officers 
responsible  for  its  erection  seem  to  have  fancied 
themselves  successors  to  the  Consuls  of  Rome,  and 
their  inscription  grandiloquently  declares  :  "  In  the 
yeare  that  William  Hermitage  and  George  Gyles 


278  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

was  Churchwardens  this  pulpet  was  made,"  but 
for  the  benefit  of  those  to  whom  this  information 
would  not  convey  very  much  they  thoughtfully 
added  that  it  was  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1623. 
The  churchwardens  of  an  elder  day  were  by  no 
means  unconscious  of  their  dignity,  and  for  the 
most  part  they  were  fully  convinced  that  posterity 
would  be  very  much  interested  in  their  names. 
A  mediaeval  bell  in  the  old  tower  rather  boast- 
fully exclaims :  "  Me  Melior  Vere  Non  Est  Campana 
Sub  Ere."  As  the  vicar  (A.  A.  Evans)  in  his  ad- 
mirable pamphlet  on  the  church  translates  it — 

"No  bell  under  sky 
Is  better  than  I." 

Several  of  his  predecessors  have  been  famous 
men,  one  (Bradbridge)  was  an  Elizabethan  Bishop 
of  Exeter,  another  (Michell),  who  figures  in  Lower's 
Worthies  of  Sussex,  was  in  the  late  eighteenth 
century  a  contributor  to  the  Lewes  Journal,  the 
precursor  of  the  excellent  Sussex  Daily  Neivs, 
whose  head  office  is  now  in  Brighton. 

But  locally  at  any  rate  the  most  famous  of  the 
Vicars  of  East  Dean  was  Parson  Darby  (d.  1723) 
who  excavated  a  little  cave  called  his  hole  in  the 
chalk  cliffs  by  Beachy  Head,  with  the  excellent 
object  of  warning  passing  vessels  by  means  of 
lights  and  of  saving  shipwrecked  mariners.  In 
this  noble  work  he  had  considerable  success,  but 
it  did  not  make  him  popular  in  his  parish  ;  many 
of  his  people,  indeed,  seem  to  have  deserved  the 
strictures  in  the  Mourning  Bride  of  his  contem- 
porary, William  Congreve — 

"  Sussex  men  that  dwell  upon  the  shore 
Look  out  when  storms  arise,  and  billows  roar, 


BEACHY   HEAD   AND   EASTBOURNE    279 

Devoutly  praying,  with  unlifted  hands, 
That  some  well-laden  ship  may  strike  the  sands  ; 
To  whose  rich  cargo  they  may  make  pretence, 
And  fatten  on  the  spoils  of  Providence." 

His  preference  for  spending  his  time  in  his  hole 
rather  than  at  his  vicarage  when  the  weather 
was  bad  was  uncharitably  attributed  to  Mrs. 
Darby's  tongue,  the  suggestion  being  as  the  ballad 
expresses  it — 

"For  a  scolding  wife  simply  bothers  your  life 
In  a  way  that  has  no  end  ; 
It's  better  to  be  on  the  roughest  sea, 
Where  things  at  the  worst  may  mend." 

The  Downs  are  dotted  with  ancient  tumuli,  there 
are  some  traces  of  old  terraces  for  cultivation  and 
at  Belle  Tout,  which  rises  just  east  of  Birling 
Gap,  is  a  small  camp  at  the  edge  of  the  sheer 
steep  cliffs,  within  those  limits  the  old  lighthouse 
for  Beachy  Head  was  built  in  1831.  The  new  one 
stands  up  from  the  waters  of  the  sea  a  little 
farther  to  the  east.  Belle  Tout  is  but  284  feet 
above  the  sea,  a  gentle  slope  of  Down  grass  for 
a  little  more  than  a  mile  leads  to  the  top  of 
Beachy  Head  itself,  575  feet  above  the  waves  and 
undoubtedly  the  finest  part  of  the  Sussex  coast  so 
far  as  impressive  scenery  is  concerned.  The  name 
is  a  corruption  of  Beauchef,  which  form  appears 
in  a  document  of  the  second  year  of  Edward  I. 
about  the  fishing  rights  of  the  house  of  Braose. 
The  chalk  of  the  lower  portion,  without  flints,  is 
harder  than  that  of  the  upper,  whose  strata  are 
marked  by  lines  of  flints,  and  though  exposed  to 
the  full  force  of  the  waves  it  does  not  weather 
so  fast.  Hence  upon  it  rests  a  talus  slope  grass- 


280  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

grown  at  the  foot  of  the  precipice  of  the  upper 
chalk,  and  this  is  what  gives  the  promontory  its 
chief  beauty.  The  weathering  of  the  chalk,  with 
the  appearance  and  gradual  crumbling  of  detached 
pinnacles,  called  Charleses,  of  which  there  are  said 
once  to  have  been  seven,  causes  the  cliffs  to  be  con- 
stantly varying  in  their  outline  and  even  in  their 
character.  The  full  impressiveness  of  the  promon- 
tory is  best  realised  from  the  sea,  but  in  many  ways 
the  charm  and  mystery  are  greater  when  seen  from 
the  land  side.  To  the  present  writer  it  appeared 
more  striking  than  ever  before  when,  on  the  day 
when  the  frontispiece  to  this  book  was  painted, 
drifting  clouds  of  mist  obscured  all  the  lower  por- 
tions while  the  sun  shone  brightly  above,  and  the 
sound  of  steamers'  sirens  was  almost  constant 
over  the  smooth  waters  of  the  sea. 

Whole  stretches  of  the  Down-sides  are  mantled 
with  the  magnificent  yellow  of  the  gorse ;  the  sam- 
phire (Crithmum  maritimum),  once  common  on  the 
ledges  of  the  rock,  has  now  become  comparatively 
rare,  another  characteristic  plant  is  the  round- 
headed  rampion  (Phyteuma  orbiculare),  sometimes 
called  the  pride  of  Sussex.  Sea-birds  of  many  kinds 
have  their  homes  on  the  ledges  of  the  chalk,  and  it 
was  on  Beachy  Head  in  1886  that  Swinburne  wrote 
his  address  To  the  Seamew — 

1 '  The  lark  knows  no  such  rapture, 
Such  joy  no  nightingale." 

The  view  on  a  clear  day  is  exceedingly  striking — 
inland  over  the  Downs  Chanctonbury  Ring  is  con- 
spicuous, and  one  may  occasionally  see  the  barrows 
at  Kingly  Bottom  near  Chichester  ;  a  wide  stretch 
of  Weald  appears  to  north  and  east;  along  the 


BEACHY  HEAD  AND  EASTBOURNE    281 

shore  may  be  seen  Dungeness  to  the  east  and  land 
near  Selsey  peninsula  to  the  west.  Occasionally 
the  cliffs  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  even  it  is  alleged 
the  French  shore,  may  be  made  out,  but,  as  F.  W. 
Bourdillon  has  shown  in  a  paper  on  Beachy  Head, 
the  sight  of  these  distant  objects  must  wholly 
depend  on  refraction. 

It  was  off  Beachy  Head  in  1690  that  the  French 
under  the  Comte  de  Tourville  defeated  the  Dutch  and 
English  under  George  Byng  (afterwards  Viscount 
Torrington),  a  reverse  that  greatly  displeased  the 
Dutchman,  who  had  just  mounted  the  English 
throne,  on  which  he  was  by  no  means  too  firmly 
seated  at  the  time.  A  British  fleet  was  defeated 
near  the  same  spot  in  1706  by  the  corsair  Du  Guay 
Tronin. 

Amid  this  wild  coast  scenery  grew  up  the  Sussex 
painter  John  Hamilton  Mortimer  (1741-1779),  whose 
father  was  Collector  of  Customs  at  Eastbourne,  but 
whose  chief  associates  in  early  years  were  the 
smugglers.  In  his  historical  picture  of  St.  Paul 
converting  the  Britons  he  helped  to  perpetuate  a 
venerable  legend  connected  with  Sussex,  and  in  his 
favourite  studies  of  storms  and  caves  and  wrecks 
he  showed  the  influence  of  his  childhood  sur- 
roundings. 

Wheatears  or  white-tails,  birds  which  De  Foe 
thought  he  might  call  the  English  ortolans,  the  most 
delicious  taste  for  a  creature  of  a  mouthful  (for  'tis 
little  more)  that  can  be  imagined,  were  once  caught 
in  considerable  quantities  on  these  Downs,  but  the 
industry  is  now  reduced  almost  to  vanishing. 
Three  cases  in  the  Booth  Collection  of  Birds  at 
Brighton  show  the  creatures  at  different  seasons 
of  the  year.  During  the  Commonwealth  the 
staunchly  Royalist  Wilsons  of  Bourne  (now  Comp- 


282  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

ton)  Place,  whose  monuments  are  in  the  old  church, 
being  visited  by  officials  who  were  nosing  round  for 
incriminating  papers,  made  time  to  burn  the  letters 
that  might  otherwise  have  got  them  into  trouble 
by  regaling  the  Roundheads  on  wheatear-pie,  a 
delicacy  with  which  they  were  both  amazed  and 
delighted.  John  Owen  of  the  Middle  Temple,  Gent. 
(Britannia  Depicta,  1720)  tells  us  that  Sussex  is 
famous  "  also  for  ye  delicate  Ear  Bird,  sd.  to  be 
peculiar  to  it."  Fuller  was  probably  his  authority 
for  the  last  statement,  which  is  not  true  ;  in  fact, 
Smollett  describes  wheatears  in  France,  though  in  a 
sentence  which,  like  so  much  that  he  wrote,  is  rather 
too  indelicate  to  quote.  Wheatears  frequent  the 
Downs,  it  seems,  for  a  certain  fly  which  breeds  in 
the  wild  thyme.  Over-caution  is  frequently  the 
most  dangerous  of  policies,  but  this  wheatears  do 
not  seem  to  have  learnt,  for  at  the  least  menace 
of  imaginary  danger  they  fly  for  shelter  into  the 
nearest  hole,  which  as  likely  as  not  is  a  trap.  A 
piece  of  turf  is  cut  out  and  a  worm  is  temptingly 
displayed,  but  there  is  a  noose  of  horse-hair  too.  A 
generation  or  two  ago  wheatears  were  in  great 
demand,  and  sold  for  about  eighteen-pence  a  dozen 
when  fresh  and  about  half  a  crown  when  potted. 

Just  beyond  where  the  South  Downs  finally  end, 
nestling  under  Beachy  Head  with  the  flats  called 
the  Crumbles  at  the  edge  of  Pevensey  Levels  on  her 
other  side  and  the  open  Channel  in  front,  East- 
bourne is  splendidly  situated,  and  even  aBrightonian 
must  confess  it  the  most  beautiful  of  Sussex  water- 
ing places.  Much  foresight  has  been  shown  by  the 
Dukes  of  Devonshire,  on  whose  estates  it  is  built 
— the  whole  place  is  full  of  trees,  almost  every 
street  is  a  boulevard,  everywhere  one  comes  on 
gardens  and  parks.  Flower-beds  extend  along 


BEACHY  HEAD  AND  EASTBOURNE    283 

the  whole  sea-front,  and  where  there  is  a  gentle 
slope  towards  Beachy  Head  there  are  roads 
on  three  levels,  separated  by  banks  of  flowers. 
Brighton  spreads  out  so  far  over  the  Downs  that 
her  people  can  only  from  certain  sections  get  a 
view  of  them,  but  the  whole  steep  northern  face 
of  the  magnificent  range  stretching  to  the  sea 
at  Beachy  Head  is  to  be  seen  from  nearly  the 
whole  of  Eastbourne.  Her  buildings  are  not 
particularly  remarkable,  there  is  a  Library  with 
small  Museum  and  Technical  School  under  the 
same  capacious  roof ;  one  of  the  churches  (All 
Souls)  with  the  plainest  materials  manages  to  give 
the  effect  of  a  successful  basilica,  a  few  good 
towers  and  spires  rise  over  the  roofs  and  the  trees. 

Eastbourne  may  be  the  "town  called  Burne" 
of  the  Saxon  Chronicle  (1114),  in  any  case  it  is  a 
place  of  venerable  antiquity,  dating  from  Saxon 
days,  but  originally  it  was  inland ;  the  sea,  how- 
ever, has  advanced  towards  it,  and  it  has  spread 
to  the  sea,  though  the  old  town  is  still  more 
than  a  mile  from  the  shore. 

The  Church  of  St.  Mary  is  a  large  and  fine 
building,  both  nave  and  chancel  having  aisles. 
The  round  arch  between  them  with  semi-octagonal 
jamb-shafts  and  additional  little  circular  shafts 
towards  the  nave,  out  of  shape  through  settle- 
ments, dates  from  about  a  century  after  the  Con- 
quest ;  the  chancel  arcades  of  three  bays  with  just 
pointed  arches  and  zigzag  mouldings  are  a  little 
later ;  the  four  eastern  bays  of  the  nave  with 
lancets  in  the  clearstory  are  slightly  more  recent 
still ;  on  the  south  stones  of  different  colours  are 
used  alternately,  a  device  much  more  common  on 
the  Continent  than  in  England.  In  both  nave 
and  chancel  the  pillars  are  octagonal  and  round 


284  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

in  turn  with  foliage  caps.  The  chancel  is  not  in 
line  with  the  nave  and  is  entered  by  the  descent 
of  a  step.  At  different  times  in  the  fourteenth 
century  the  aisle  walls  were  rebuilt ;  some  of  the 
Perpendicular  windows  have  octagonal  shafts  with 
concave  sides.  In  this  style  are  fine  sedilia,  pis- 
cina and  Easter  sepulchre,  and  also  the  rare 
feature  of  a  piscina  by  the  rood  loft,  which  had 
its  southern  stairway  immediately  south  of  the 
chancel  arch,  its  northern  one  in  a  turret  against 
the  aisle  wall,  the  passage  passing  across  the  aisle 
over  a  buttressing  arch.  The  corresponding  arch 
on  the  south  has  the  grotesque  corbel  figured  by 
the  initial  letter  of  this  chapter.  The  western 
bay  of  the  nave  is  extremely  interesting,  as 
affording  a  mediaeval  instance  of  builders  of  one 
period  deliberately  imitating  the  style  of  an 
earlier  one,  other  examples  of  which  occur  in  the 
western  bays  of  the  nave  of  Westminster  Abbey 
and  in  the  Abbey  Gateway  at  Bristol.*  The  Early 
English  responds  were  converted  into  whole  pillars, 
the  foliage  of  the  caps  being  crudely  reproduced, 
the  mouldings  of  the  arches  matched  very  neatly, 
square-headed  windows,  however,  instead  of  lancets 
were  employed  in  the  clearstory.  The  tower 
arch  shows  similar  signs  of  efforts  to  harmonise 
with  the  earlier  parts  of  the  church ;  the  tower, 
otherwise  with  a  barrel  vault,  follows  the  ordinary 
lines  of  Perpendicular.  All  the  work  of  this  style 
in  the  church  seems  to  be  between  1380  and  1400, 
though  it  is  perilous  to  give  exact  dates.  The 
chancel  has  some  exceedingly  beautiful  early 
fourteenth-century  screens.  It  is  most  unusual  in 
Sussex  to  find  so  large  and  early  a  church  without 
a  central  tower. 

\Also  Kosslyn  Chapel  and  lona  Cathedral. 


BEACHY  HEAD  AND  EASTBOURNE    285 

Just  north  of  the  church  is  an  early  sixteenth- 
century  clergy-house  built  of  flint  and  stone,  with 
mullioned  windows  and  the  usual  features  of  the 
period ;  it  is  figured  at  the  head  of  the  chapter. 
Patched  at  all  sorts  of  periods  and  overgrown 
with  plants,  it  is  now  in  a  very  dilapidated,  not  to 
say  ruinous,  condition.  Its  repair  is  greatly  to 
be  wished  for. 

There  was  of  old  in  Eastbourne  a  strange  in- 
stitution called  sops  and  ale,  though  why  it 
should  have  been  called  that  rather  than  anything 
else  is  not  very  clear.  As  to  the  precise  character 
of  the  proceedings  authorities  differ  very  much, 
but  apparently  the  senior  bachelor  of  the  place 
was  elected  steward,  and  when  a  child  was  born 
it  became  his  duty,  standing  in  church  and 
holding  a  white  wand,  to  issue  a  general  invita- 
tion to  a  feast.  Precedence  at  this  repast  was 
according  to  the  number  of  children :  the  child- 
less, whether  wedded  or  otherwise,  must  sit  at 
clothless  tables  and  partake  of  the  roughest  fare, 
while  the  happy  mothers  of  twins  ate  of  the 
choicest  viands,  served  on  damask  table-cloths 
and  manipulated  with  silver  forks  and  knives. 
Horsfield  thought  the  custom  honoured  better  in 
the  breach  than  in  the  observance,  but  whether 
his  objections  were  based  on  his  general  sense  of 
propriety  or  on  grounds  that  Parson  Malthus 
would  have  approved  does  not  appear. 

Under  the  old  Lamb  Inn  is  a  square  chamber 
covered  with  a  sort  of  dome  vault,  nine  ribs 
without  corbels  meeting  in  a  central  boss,  one 
from  each  corner,  one  from  the  middle  of  each 
of  three  sides,  and  one  from  each  side  of  the 
entrance.  There  are  small  openings  deeply 
splayed  upward.  Two  flat  arched  doorways  ace 


286  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

fifteenth-century    work,   the    crypt    may  perhaps 
be  earlier. 

Just  beyond  the  limits  of  Eastbourne  to  the 
north,  but  close  to  Hampden  Park,  is  the  village 
of  Willingdon,  whose  church  is  Early  English 
work  with  a  fine  moulded  and  shafted  south 
door,  but  except  the  tower  the  building  was 
largely  reconstructed  during  the  fifteenth  century. 
At  the  end  of  the  aisle  is  a  chapel  with 
interesting  monuments  to  the  families  who  have 
succeeded  each  other  in  holding  the  manor.  Of  the 
Parkers  there  is  a  series  beginning  with  sixteenth- 
century  brasses,  continuing  with  Jacobean  tombs, 
and  ending  with  a  tablet  to  the  last  of  them, 
who  died  unmarried  in  1750.  The  Tray  tons 
are  commemorated,  but  not  apparently  the 
Durrants,  to  whom  they  sold  the  place.  George 
Thomas,  Governor  of  the  Leeward  Islands,  has 
a  tablet  with  painted  arms  dated  1774.  A  tablet 
of  1780  commemorates  Arthur  Freeman,  of 
Antigua.  There  are  later  memorials  to  the 
Freeman  Thomases. 

The  writer  knew  a  venerable  old  quarryman 
of  West  Hoathly  who  spoke  broad  Sussex  dialect 
and  was  called  Mr.  Trayton  Durrant,  but  who 
seemed  to  know  nothing  whatever  of  the  county 
families  whose  names  he  bore.  It  has  often 
been  pointed  out  that  some  of  the  most  back- 
ward families  among  the  mountains  of  the 
Southern  States  come  of  good  old  English  stock, 
and  there  is  no  reasonable  doubt  that  at  home 
too  the  posterity  of  many  a  younger  son  of  a 
proud  house  have  sunk  into  the  peasant  ranks. 
The  blood  of  more  than  one  old  Sussex  family 
supposed  to  be  long  extinct  still  flows  in  humble 
veins  whose  owner  knows  nothing  of  the  history 


BEACHY  HEAD  AND  EASTBOURNE    287 

of    the    name    he    bears.     It    is    a    subject    that 
deserves  more  study  than  it  has  received. 

Just  over  Willingdon  Hill  spreads  a  valley- 
southward  from  the  Weald  into  the  Downs,  and 
it  extends  up  to  the  high  ridge  where  Friston 
stands.  In  it  is  Jevington,  a  very  typical  Down 
village  whose  church  tower  has  windows  of 
Roman  brick,  thin  arches  nearly  straight-sided, 
flint  in  .herring-bone,  and  other  marks  of  pre- 
Conquest  masonry.  Saxon,  too,  is  a  remarkable 
rude  sculpture  representing  a  figure  with  scallop- 
shaped  nimbus  and  a  clawed  animal  below  ;  the 
exact  subject  is  in  doubt,  but  the  fact  that  the 
figure  is  moustached  in  the  Saxon  manner  pre- 
cludes its  being  of  Norman  workmanship.  The 
church  is  otherwise  mostly  of  thirteenth-century 
character,  the  arcade  having  a  buttressing  arch 
over  the  aisle,  the  chancel  with  trefoiled  lancets 
being  a  little  later  in  style.  The  masonry  of 
the  south  wall  of  the  nave  is  rough  ashlar  of 
Norman  appearance ;  the  nearly  semi-circular 
waggon  roof  of  the  nave,  with  tie-beams 
and  king-posts  having  capitals  and  brackets 
above,  was  added  in  the  .fifteenth  century.  The 
village  inn  bears  the  sign  of  Eight  Bells,  but 
in  the  church  there  are  but  two,  and  the  rector 
suggests  that  the  old  peal,  like  so  many  others, 
was  perhaps  stolen  in  the  plundering  days  of 
Henry  VIII.  or  Edward  VI.  for  the  iniquitous 
purpose  of  debasing  the  coinage. 

Farther  north  in  the  valley  is  the  beautiful 
hamlet  of  Wannock,  remarkable  for  some  fine 
old  timber-framed  buildings,  plastered  between 
the  beams,  one  of  which  appears  in  the  photo- 
graph opposite  p.  286.  Just  clear  of  the  Downs 
and  on  the  border  of  the  Weald  beyond  is 


288  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

Polegate,  a  railway-formed  settlement  not  more 
romantic  than  its  name,  but  the  woods  around 
are  famed  for  their  butterflies,  the  magnificent 
silver-washed  fritillary  is  common,  the  beautiful 
white  admiral  is  not  so  very  rare. 

A  quiet  lane  turns  toward  the  hill,  and  soon 
leads  to  the  scattered  little  village  of  Folkington, 
a  delightful  retreat  among  Wealden  woods,  but 
right  against  the  Downs.  A  little  Early  English 
church  (about  1250)  is  almost  hidden  by  the  trees, 
the  nave  and  chancel  are  unseparated  by  an  arch 
and  lighted  by  splayed  lancets  with  later  inser- 
tions, a  square  wooden  bell-cot  rests  on  a  beam 
that  is  incribed  "T.  1673  A."  The  roof  is  largely 
fifteenth  century,  with  the  common  Sussex 
arrangement  of  king-posts,  brackets,  purlins,  and 
collars.  On  one  of  the  tie-beams,  when  Rev. 
Howard  Hopley  was  reading  himself  in  as  rector, 
sat  some  half-dozen  owls,  who  had  got  into  the 
building  the  night  before,  and  they  listened 
attentively  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the 
Church  without  making  any  sign  of  dissent. 
Among  the  memorials  is  an  eighteenth-century 
tablet,  with  urn  and  cherubs  and  arms,  to  "Sir 
Wm.  Thomas,  bart.,  a  right  worthy  Gentle- 
man," erected  by  his  nephew  and  heir. 

An  ancient  track  along  the  side  of  the  Downs, 
with  views  across  the  Weald,  leads  direct  to 
Wilmington  church,  whose  chancel  has  a  Norman 
string-course  with  some  windows  in  the  same 
style,  and  the  rest  is  chiefly  Early  English,  with 
a  short  and  narrow  south  aisle.  On  the  walls 
are  traces  of  Elizabethan  texts,  and  there  is  a 
fine  canopied  pulpit  of  Jacobean  date.  In  the 
churchyard  is  an  ancient  hollow  yew  sustained 
by  chains  and  six  great  props,  whose  sombre 


BEACHY  HEAD  AND  EASTBOURNE     289 

foliage  appears  in  happiest  contrast  with  the 
hartstongue  ferns  and  ivy  and  grass  and  wild 
flowers  that  grow  everywhere  among  the 
crumbling  graves. 

Immediately  south  of  the  church  are  remains 
of  the  alien  Benedictine  Priory,  a  cell  of  the 
Norman  Abbey  of  Grestein,  which  was  founded  to 
look  after  the  Sussex  estates  of  the  parent  house. 
A  crypt  is  vaulted  in  plastered  chalk  with  stone 
ribs  resting  on  corner  shafts  that  have  capitals, 
and  on  a  central  octagonal  pillar  that  has  none ; 
it  seems  to  belong  to  the  thirteenth  century.  The 
building  above  has  collapsed  through  neglect,  but 
not  through  age ;  very  strong  old  beams,  on 
which  now  plants  are  rooted,  rest  on  a  late- 
looking  corbel  and  on  a  pillar  with  concave 
sides.  A  Tudor  gateway  in  ruin,  mantled  with 
ivy  and  wallflower,  has  broken  turrets,  one  with 
a  newel  stair,  and  a  large  window  with  comfort- 
able seats.  Some  corbels  and  a  ledge  upheld 
the  wooden  floors.  It  is  built  of  stone,  chalk, 
brick  and  flint,  and  has  been  patched  in  later 
days  ;  one  fragment  has  dog-tooth  moulding.  It 
was  never  a  part  of  the  priory,  which  with  the 
other  alien  houses  was  suppressed  in  1414. 

But  the  chief  feature  of  Wilmington  is  on  the 
Down- side  above,  the  world-famous  Long  Man. 
He  grasps  a  staff  in  either  hand,  he  is  walking 
toward  the  east,  his  height  is  230  feet.  At  one  time 
the  outlines  were  almost  obliterated,  and  could 
only  be  made  out  in  certain  lights ;  they  are  now 
marked  with  bricks  and  emphasised  with  whiten- 
ing, so  that  he  who  runs  may  see.  Nothing  is 
known  but  much  has  been  guessed  as  to  why 
and  by  whom  he  was  made.  There  is  a 
similar  but  rather  smaller  figure  at  Cerne  Abbas, 

19 


290  THE  SUSSEX   COAST 

in  Dorset,  and  it  is  natural  to  connect  him  with 
the  well-known  white  horses  of  the  West. 

The  quiet  peace  of  these  heavenly  villages  will 
delight  all  reverent  wayfarers,  but  it  utterly 
declines  to  be  reduced  to  words.  For  more  than  a 
thousand  years  at  least  the  great  figure  on  the 
hill  has  looked  down  on  the  varied  activities  of 
man.  Probably  its  origin  is  yet  immeasurably 
more  remote,  and  very  likely  it  was  already 
mysterious  and  ancient  when  the  Roman  soldiers 
were  conquering  the  land.  Before  the  days  of 
Mohammed  the  Saxons  had  begun  to  carve  out 
their  settlements  f  com  the  dense  woods,  and  very 
gradually  they  were  to  learn  to  build  their  thatch- 
covered  homes  of  wattle  and  dab  and  of  solid  oak 
timbers  amid  the  wild  "flowers  and  the  ferns. 
Generation  after  generation  of  villagers  have 
gossiped  under  that  aged  yew  and  worshipped  in 
that  little  church,  have  heard  and  told  the  stories 
of  the  forest  that  spread  around.  Norman  ad- 
venturer and  Norman  monk  have  called  this 
peaceful  spot  their  home,  and  built  in  it  for  all 
time  to  come.  The  hilly  village  street  with  its  old 
houses  and  its  bright  gardens  seems  to  be  looking 
its  very  best  when  in  the  sunlight  blossoms  show 
white  or  pink  before  higher  trees  or  against  the 
blue  sky,  but  the  peculiar  fascination  of  the  place  is 
in  no  way  diminished  when  twilight  has  fallen  and 
bats  or  white  swallow-tail  moths  fiy  about  under 
the  deep  shadow  of  the  trees.  Here  in  a  restless 
world  is  one  spot  at  least  that  keeps  green  the 
memory  of  other  days. 

Watching  over  the  estuary  of  the  Delaware  is  a 
sky-scrapered  city  that  shares  the  name  of  this 
restful  place,  but  Wilmington,  Delaware,  is  not  a 
daughter  of  the  Sussex  village,  but  a  fortunate 


BEACHY  HEAD  AND  EASTBOURNE    291 

corruption  of  Willingtown,  and  it  is  a  pure  accident 
that  its  neighbour,  Clayton,  bears  the  name  of 
another  of  the  villages  along  the  north  slope  of  the 
Downs.  Farther  south  in  the  same  State,  however, 
there  is  a  county  called  Sussex  that  was  founded  by 
settlers  from  ours,  and  among  its  towns  are  Lewes 
and  Seaf  ord. 


-XVI. 


T  Anderida,  but  not  until  very  late 
days  of  their  occupation,  the  Romans 
built  one  of  the  strong  fortresses 
that  they  put  in  charge  of  the  Count 
of  the  Saxon  Shore.  The  flat  country 
called  Pevensey  Levels  was  then  a  bay  of  the  sea,  or 
rather  a  vast  lagoon,  which  in  the  absence  of  the 
Imperial!  fortress  would  probably  have  suited  the 
Teutonic* barbarians  very  well.  It  was  surrounded 
by  j,  the  row  hills  on  which  stand  Willingdon, 
Hailsham, ,  Herstmonceux,  Hooe,  and  Bexhill,  with 
an  arm  extending  up  to  Ashburnham  in  the  valley 
of  the  stream  called  Wallers  Haven.  The  Romans 
do  not  seem  to  have  seriously  attempted  the  re- 
clamation of  the  district,  but  it  was  gradually 
accomplished  during  the  Middle  Ages,  the  eastward 
drift  materially  assisting  by  the  deposit  of  the 
shingle  bar  that  forms  the  existing  coast-line ;  it  is 
still  a  source  of  anxiety  to  the  Commissioners  of 


PEVENSEY  293 

Sewers  for  the  Levels  in  whose  charge  it  is. 
Holinshed  tells  us  that  "into  Peuenseie  hauen 
diuerse  waters  doo  resort,"  but  soon  after  his  time 
the  inning  was  complete  and  Pevensey  had  ceased 
to  have  a  haven  at  all.  The  walls  that  enclose 
Anderida  form  an  irregular  oval  and  seem  to 
follow  the  direction  of  an  ancient  British  defence. 
They  are  of  immense  solidity,  over  12  feet  thick, 
with  a  core  of  rubble  flint  and  faced  with  small 
stones  of  very  neat  masonry  ;  there  are  a  plinth  of 
green  sandstone  and  three  string-courses,  the  upper 
one  of  brick.  To  secure  their  permanence  on 
marshy  soil  elaborate  precautions  were  taken, 
piles  were  driven,  huge  timbers  laid  across  in 
places,  foundations  of  puddled  clay,  rammed  chalk 
and  of  a  flint  concrete  were  supplied,  but  in  spite  of 
it  all  about  a  third  of  the  circuit  has  fallen  and  much 
more  would  have  gone  but  for  modern  support. 
At  intervals  are  apsidal  towers,  two  of  these  flank 
the  principal  entrance  ;  on  the  western  side  there 
were  three  other  gates,  the  north  one  having  the 
curious  arrangement  of  a  curved  passage  through 
the  wall,  which  can  be  seen  close  to  where  a  large 
section  has  fallen.  A  bank  of  clay  against  the 
walls  within  may  possibly  be  a  relic  of  the  earth- 
works, though  in  the  excavations  carried  out 
under  the  direction  of  F.  L.  Salzmann  (to  whom 
this  account  is  indebted)  no  trace  of  pre-Roman 
occupation  was  found. 

Anderida  having  been  built  so  late  in  the  period 
of  Roman  rule  no  cultured  city  grew  up  there 
before  the  Legions  were  withdrawn,  and  excavation 
only  revealed  the  sites  of  wattle-huts  with  fire- 
places, the  old  quarters  probably  of  the  Classiarii 
JBritannici,  or  marines  used  for  the  defence  of  the 
Saxon  shore  (a  few  bricks  with  their  marks 


294  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

"CL  BE"  were  found),  and  of  the  Abulci,  Gaulish 
troops  that  formed  the  garrison  of  the  place. 
Coins  from  Gallienus  (254-268  A.D.)  to  Gratian 
(375-383)  were  found,  and  also  a  most  interesting 
tile  stamped 

HON     A VG 
ANDRI  A 

apparently  referring  to  Honorius  the  Emperor  by 
whom  the  Legions  were  withdrawn  in  409,  and 
giving  an  abbreviated  way  of  writing  the  name  of 
the  settlement. 

The  remains  of  animal  life  identified  included 
the  Celtic  ox  and  the  larger  Romano-British  ox, 
sheep,  horse,  red  deer,  and  wild  boar,  of  which 
there  were  some  fine  tusks,  hare,  dog,  cat,  the 
common  fowl,  goose,  raven,  curlew,  plover,  wood- 
cock, gull,  and  shells  of  oyster,  mussel,  cockle,  whelk, 
and  limpet — a  catalogue  that  gives  interesting 
suggestions  about  the  life  and  especially  about  the 
food  of  the  troops  who,  in  addition,  fed  on  peas  and 
wheat  and  barley,  and  enjoyed  the  fragrance  of 
violets.  The  charcoal  they  left  was  of  willow,  the 
sides  of  their  well  were  protected  by  logs  and  its 
rope  was  woven  partly  of  tamarisk.  In  the 
sections  still  unexcavated  were  perhaps  the  masonry 
buildings  occupied  by  the  Roman  officers,  who  must 
have  lived  here  a  rather  bored  existence  in  charge 
of  native  troops  beyond  the  civilisation  that  the 
province  afforded,  their  life  not  unlike  that  of 
British  officials  at  some  station  on  the  Indian 
frontier. 

When  the  legions  had  departed  Anderida  still 
continued  to  be  a  fortress  of  the  Britons,  and 
not  till  491  did  it  finally  fall  before  the  attack 
of  JElla  and  his  Saxons,  when  after  a  heroic 


PEVENSEY 


295 


defence  it  was  captured  amid  frightful  scenes 
of  slaughter,  and  in  the  emphatic  language  of 
the  Saxon  Chronicle  not  one  Briton  remained 
alive.  Whether  this  was  the  usual  practice  of 
our  heathen  Saxon  forefathers  has  been  hotly 
debated.  Evidence  is  strong  that  it  was  not. 
Henry  of  Huntingdon,  writing  in  the  early  twelfth 
century,  gives  a  much  fuller  account.  "The 
Britons  swarmed  together  like  wasps,  assailing 
the  besiegers  by  daily  ambuscades  and  nightly 
sallies.  There  was  neither  day  nor  night  in 


which  some  new  alarm  did  not  harass  the  minds 
of  the  Saxons ;  but  the  more  they  were  provoked, 
the  more  vigorously  did  they  press  the  siege. 
Whenever  they  advanced  to  the  assault  of  the 
town,  the  Britons  from  without,  falling  on  their 
rear  with  archers  and  slingers,  drew  the  pagans 
away  from  the  walls  to  resist  the  attacks  upon 
themselves,  when  the  Britons,  lighter  of  foot, 
avoided  them,  taking  refuge  in  the  woods ;  and 
when  they  turned  again  to  assault  the  town, 
again  the  Britons  hung  on  their  rear.  The  Saxons 
were  for  some  time  harassed  by  these  manoeuvres, 
till  having  lost  a  great  number  of  men  they 


296 


THE  SUSSEX  COAST 


divided  their  array  into  two  bodies,  one  of  which 
carried  on  the  siege,  while  the  other  repelled 
the  attacks  from  without.  After  this  the  Britons 
were  so  reduced  by  continual  famine  that  they 
were  unable  any  longer  to  withstand  the  force 
of  the  besiegers,  so  that  they  all  fell  by  the  edge 
of  the  sword,  with  their  women  and  children, 
not  one  escaping  alive. 

"  The   foreigners   were   so   enraged   at   the  loss 
which   they  had    sustained    that  they  totally  de- 


LANDING  OF   THE  CONQUEROR. 


stroyed  the  town  and  it  was  never  afterwards 
rebuilt  so  that  only  the  desolate  site  as  of  a  very 
noble  city  is  pointed  out  to  those  who  pass." 

The  victors  occupied  the  place,  but  so  great 
was  their  preference  for  the  open  country  that 
they  never  built  their  houses  within  the  walls. 
A  Saxon  village  thus  grew  up  outside  the  gates 
to  east  and  west ;  one  of  them,  called  the  island 
of  Peofn,  was  eventually  to  have  its  place  in  the 
organisation  of  the  Cinque  Ports  as  a  limb  of 


PEVENSEY  297 

Hastings,  the  other  was  merely  known  as  its 
west  hamlet.  Some  rough  herring-bone  patching 
of  the  old  Roman  walls  which  in  places  breaks 
their  string-courses  seems  to  be  the  result  of 
Saxon  repairs. 

At  Pevensey  landed  in  1066  William  the  Bastard, 
Duke  of  Normandy.  When  he  stepped  ashore 
his  head  was  apparently  so  much  among  the 
stars  that  he  failed  to  put  his  foot  firmly  on 
the  earth,  with  the  result  that  he  went  sprawling 
on  the  ground  and  got  his  ducal  hands  full  of 
Sussex  mud.  His  superstitious  friends  were 
inclined  to  find  in  the  circumstance  no  omen  of 
good,  but  he  was  quite  equal  to  the  emergency, 
and  declared  by  the  splendour  of  God  that  he 
had  taken  seisin  of  his  new  soil.  Similarly  when 
arming  for  the  battle  his  coat  of  mail  was  by 
some  mistake  handed  to  him.  the  wrong  way 
about,  and  in  this  he  professed  to  see  a  prophecy 
that  the  wearer  should  that  day  be  turned  from 
a  duke  into  a  king.  Such  is  the  common 
picturesque  account,  but  according  to  the  Chronicle 
of  Battle  Abbey  it  was  the  Duke's  sewer,  William 
Fitz-Osbern,  "a  man  of  great  merit  and  much 
ready  wit,"  who  in  each  case  saved  the  situation. 
On  one  occasion  he  made  the  Conqueror  extremely 
angry  by  serving  a  half-cooked  crane,  but  this 
was  not  remembered  against  him,  and  as  Earl 
of  Hereford  he  played  a  prominent  part  in  the 
transactions  of  the  reign. 

The  Rape  of  Pevensey  was  granted  to  Robert, 
Count  of  Mortain,  William's  half-brother,  as  a 
first-fruit  of  the  Conquest,  but  he  afterwards 
took  the  side  of  Robert  against  Rufus,  and  his 
brother  Odo,  the  turbulent  Bishop  of  Bayeux,  by 
whose  orders  the  famous  tapestry  was  probably 


298  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

made,  sustained  a  siege  at  Pevensey  in  the  interests 
of  the  same  side.  At  that  time  the  masonry 
defences  consisted  merely  of  the  Roman  walls, 
which  had  in  some  places  fallen,  and  of  a  rough 
rubble  keep  which  still  partly  exists  in  an  over- 
grown state  and  appears  in  the  upper  photograph 
opposite,  which  had  been  thrown  up  by  the  Count  of 
Mortain  as  a  centre  of  defence.  The  castle  reverting 
to  the  Crown  was  conferred  in  1104  by  Henry  I. 
upon  Gilbert  de  Aquila,  who  took  his  title  from 
L'Aigle  in  Normandy,  a  place  named  from  an 
eagle  having  built  its  nest  there.  Hence  Pevensey 
and  its  lands  became  known  as  the  "Honour  of 
the  Eagle."  By  Gilbert  was  probably  built  the 
existing  Norman  castle  in  the  south-east  corner 
of  the  Roman  walls,  which  it  incorporates  as  far 
as  was  possible,  and  sloping  masonry  was  built 
to  buttress  them  where  they  were  leaning 
outwards.  Where  a  great  Roman  tower  had 
fallen  and  still  lies  unbroken  (proving  the  great 
excellence  of  its  mortar),  among  the  bushes  that 
appear  on  the  right  of  the  lower  photograph  oppo- 
site, was  joined  to  the  older  work  Norman  masonry 
rising  higher  and  built  of  larger  stones,  and  the 
curtain  wall  was  continued  to  enclose  about  an 
acre  and  a  half,  meeting  the  Roman  wall  again 
near  the  centre  of  the  east  side.  Three  great 
round  towers  and  a  tunnel- vaulted  chief  gateway 
with  portcullis  groove  flanked  by  smaller  towers 
are  its  most  striking  features.  The  gateway 
with  the  tall  ruins  of  its  northern  tower  appears 
in  the  chapter  heading,  of  its  southern  tower 
little  remains.  A  moat  protects  the  Norman 
castle  from  an  enemy  that  has  carried  the  Roman 
defences,  but  it  does  not  breach  them,  and  in 
fact  Anderida  was  adopted  as  the  outer  court 


-Hannah. 


PEVENSEY   CASTLE. 


To  face  p.  298. 


PEVENSEY  299 

of  the  castle,  and  one  of  its  towers  on  the  north 
has  the  ruins  of  a  Norman  upper  story. 

The  Norman  towers  had  floors  sustained  by 
massive  beams,  a  later  vault  with  moulded  ribs 
has  been  inserted  in  the  basement  of  the  most 
northern,  and  in  different  parts  there  are  details 
of  almost  every  period  up  to  Tudor  times,  but  as 
a  rule  they  are  scanty  enough.  Immediately  to 
the  right  of  the  gateway  on  entering,  against  the 
southern  curtain,  are  remains  of  two  huge  fire- 
places ;  one,  at  any  rate,  probably  belonged  to  the 
hall.  In  the  centre  of  the  court  was  a  detached 
chapel,  whose  foundations  and  font  remain,  while 
not  far  off  is  the  well,  fenced  in  and  over- 
grown. 

The  castle  has  seen  a  good  deal  of  fighting,  and 
has  passed  through  various  hands.  In  1144  it  was 
held  for  Matilda,  and  besieged  by  Stephen  in  person 
during  the  period  of  terrible  anarchy  when  men 
said  that  Christ  and  the  Saints  were  asleep.  In 
1265  it  was  held  by  the  supporters  of  Henry  III. 
and  attacked  by  Simon  de  Montfort  the  younger, 
son  of  the  great  Earl  of  Leicester. 

But  the  most  interesting  siege  was  in  connection 
with  the  excellent  Sussex  house  of  Pelham,  that 
happily  flourishes  to-day.  One  of  them,  Sir  John, 
was  made  Constable  of  the  Castle  by  John  of 
Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  to  whom  Pevensey  had 
been  granted  by  Edward  III.,  and  whose  son  was 
to  found  the  Lancastrian  Dynasty  as  Henry  IV. 
In  1399  Sir  John's  noble  wife,  Lady  Joan  Pelham, 
held  Pevensey  Castle  for  the  Lancastrians  against 
the  forces  of  Richard  II.,  who  eventually  had  to 
withdraw.  Her  letter  to  her  husband  describing 
the  defence  is  of  the  greatest  interest,  particularly 
in  these  days  when  the  idea  of  women  taking  an 


300  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

active  part  in  public  affairs  to  some  seems  so  novel 
and  revolutionary. 

"  My  dere  Lord,  I  recomrnande  me  to  yowr  hie 
Lordesehippe  wyth  hert  and  body  and  all  my  pore 
mygth,  and  with  all  this  I  think  5ow,  as  my  dere 
Lorde,  derest  and  best  yloved  off  all  earthlyche 
Lordes;  .  .  .  ffor  by  my  trowth  I  was  never  so 
gladd  as  when  I  herd  by  your  lettre,  that  ye  warr 
stronge  ynogh  wyth  the  grace  off  God,  for  to  kepe 
yow  fro  the  malyce  of  your  ennemys.  .  .  .  And  my 
dere  Lorde,  if  is  lyk  5ow  for  to  know  off  my  ffare, 
I  am  here  by  layd  in  manner  off  a  sege,  wyth  the 
counte  of  Sussex,  Sudray,  and  a  greet  parsyll  off 
Kentte ;  so  that  I  ne  may  nogth  out,  nor  none 
vitayles  gette  me,  hot  with  myche  hard.  .  .  .  Fare- 
well my  dere  Lorde,  the  Holy  Trinyte  50 w  kepe  fro 
5our  ennemys,  and  son  send  me  gud  tythyngs  off 
yhow.  Ywryten  at  Pevensay  in  the  castell,  on 
Saynt  lacobe  day  last  past." 

Next  year  the  castle  was  granted  to  Sir  John 
Pelham,  and  when  James  I.  of  Scotland,  on  his 
way  to  France,  was  captured  at  Scarborough  and 
long  held  a  prisoner  in  England,  he  was  committed 
for  some  time  to  Pelham's  care,  and  lived  under 
restraint  in  Pevensey  Castle.  Hall's  Chronicle 
(1542)  gives  a  most  entertaining  account  of  this 
famous  Fitzalan  or  Stuart,  and  if  it  be  digressing 
to  quote  a  part  of  it  in  connection  with  Pevensey, 
let  us  digress.  Edward  Hall,  a  lawyer  by  profes- 
sion, was  entirely  at  one  with  Dr.  Johnson  in  his 
opinion  of  the  Scotch,  and  he  contrived  to  express 
himself  yet  more  rudely. 

"For  the  true  knowledge  therof  you  shal 
vnderstande  that  Englande  demaunded  a  small 
raunsome  for  so  great  a  prince  as  the  Scottes 
accompte  their  kyng  (and  the  Scottes  were  neither 


PEVENSEY  301 

able  nor  offered  no  summe  conuenient)  wherfore 
the  cousel  of  the  realme  of  England  grauously 
pondered  and  wisely  considered  that  if  by  con- 
iunction  of  mariage,  England  and  Scotland  were 
perfectly  knit  in  one,  that  the  indissoluble  band  of 
amitie  betweene  the  Frenche  and  Scottishe  nacions 
should  be  shortly  broken  and  dissolued.  Where- 
fore the  protector  of  the  realme  of  Englad  by  the 
consent  of  the  whole  baronage  of  the  same  gaue 
to  him  in  mariage  the  Lady  lane  doughter  to  Ihon 
earle  of  Sommerset  desceased,  not  onely  sister  to 
Ihon  then  duke  of  Sommerset  but  also  cosyn 
germayne  remoued  to  the  Kyng  and  nece  to  the 
cardinal  of  Wynchester  and  the  duke  of  Exceter. 
"  The  kyng  of  Scottes  hauyng  great  affection  to 
this  fayre  Lady,  but  muche  more  desiryng  his 
deliuerance  and  libertie,  put  in  hostages  for  the 
residue  of  his  raunsome  because  a  great  part 
therof  was  deminished  and  abated  for  the  money 
allowed  to  hym  for  his  mariage,  and  so  was  de- 
liuered  to  depart  at  his  pleasure.  Alacke,  the  olde 
prouerbes  bee  to  true  ;  an  Ape  although  she  bee 
clothed  in  purple,  will  be  but  an  Ape,  and  a  Scotte 
neuer  so  gentely  enterteined  of  an  Englishe  prince 
will  be  but  a  dissimulyng  Scotte.  What  kyndnes 
could  be  more  shewed  to  a  prisoner  than  to  bryng 
hym  vp  in  good  litterature.  What  loue  maie  bee 
more  declared  to  a  captiue,  then  to  instructe  hym 
in  marciall  f eates  and  warlike  affaires  :  What  f auor 
can  be  more  ascribed  to  a  high  and  renoumed 
prince,  then  to  geue  in  mariage  to  his  vnderlyng 
and  vassall  his  cosyn  and  kinswoman  of  his  royal 
parentage  lawfully  descended.  All  these  kynd- 
iiesses  sufnsed  not,  nor  all  these  gratuities  auailed 
not  to  make  this  kyng  lames  frendly  to  the  realme 
of  Englande.  For  he  notwithstandyg  his  homage 


302  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

doen  to  the  young  Henry  king  of  Englande  and 
of  Fraunce  at  his  Castle  of  Wynsore  this  present 
yere  (1423),  before  three  Dukes,  twoo  Arche- 
bishoppes,  xii.  erles,  x.  bishoppes,  x  x.  barons,  and 
twoo  hundred  knightes  and  esquires  and  mo, 
accordyng  to  the  tenor  here  after  foloyng. 

"'I,  lames  Stuart  kyng  of  Scottes,  shalbe  true 
and  faithf ull  vnto  you  lorde  Henry  by  the  grace  of 
God  kyng  of  Englande  and  Fraunce  the  noble  and 
superior  lorde  of  the  kyngdome  of  Scotlande.  .  .  .' 

"Nether  regardyng  his  othe,  nor  estemyng  the 
great  abundance  of  plate  and  riche  Clothes  of 
Arras,  to  hym  by  the  mother  and  vncles  of  his 
wife  liberally  geuen  and  frendly  deliuered  (of 
which  sorte  of  riches  fewe  or  none  before  that 
daie  wer  euer  seen  in  the  coutrey  of  Scotlande) 
like  a  dogge  whiche  hath  cast  vp  his  stomacke 
and  returneth  to  his  vomet,  or  like  a  snake 
whiche  after  his  engenderyng  with  a  Lampray 
taketh  again  his  old  poyson :  After  he  had  once 
taken  the  ayre  and  smelled  the  sent  of  the 
Scottishe  soyle  became  like  his  falce  fraudulet 
forfathers,  an  vntrue  prince  and  like  his  proude 
pratyng  progenitors  toke  the  ymage  of  a  braggyng 
and  bostyng  Scot,  newly  alied  hymself  with  the 
Frenche  nacion.  And  yet  whatsoeuer  he  did,  his 
nacion  bothe  write  and  testifie,  that  by  the  learn- 
yng  whiche  he  by  the  greate  benefite  of  the  kynges 
of  Englande  duryng  his  captiuitee  in  this  realme 
had  obteigned,  replenished  his  countrey  with  good 
litterature,  and  by  the  nurture  the  whiche  he  was 
brought  vp  in  Englad,  he  brought  his  people  to 
ciuilitee:  So  that  his  captiuitee  was  to  his  nacion 
the  greatest  libertie  that  euer  thei  could  haue, 
deliuering  them  from  blynde  ignorance  to 
Angelicke  knowledge,  reducyng  theim  from 


PEVENSEY  303 

bestiall  maners  to  honest  behauor,  and  in  con- 
clusion causyng  theim  to  knowe  vertue  from  vice, 
pollicie  from  rudenes,  and  humain  honestie  from 
sauage  liuyng."  * 

Among  other  prisoners  confined  at  Pevensey 
Castle  was  Joan  of  Navarre,  daughter  of  Charles 
the  Bad ;  she  was  the  second  wife  of  Henry  IV., 
and  he  was  her  second  husband ;  the  union  was 
far  from  happy  and  he  said  that  she  was  a  witch. 

At  the  time  of  the  Spanish  Armada  Pevensey 
Castle  was  in  a  dilapidated  state,  and  the  order 
went  out  that  it  should  either  be  destroyed  or 
repaired,  but  instead  of  either  it  was  left  alone. 
A  gun  of  the  period  lies  on  the  grass  of  Anderida, 
roughly  mounted.  It  now  forms  part  of  the  wide 
possessions  of  the  Dukes  of  Devonshire,  who  have 
been  kind  in  permitting  excavation. 

Standing  on  a  low  hill  that  once  rose  an  island 
from  tidal  flats  it  commands  a  fine  view  from  the 
top  of  the  ruined  walls,  of  which  the  photograph 
opposite  page  298  may  give  some  idea.  A  writer 
in  the  Gentleman  s  Magazine  for  1805  rather  exag- 
gerates in  declaring  that  "this  ancient  fabric  is 
situated  on  a  craggy  steep."  It  inspired,  however, 
a  sonnet  by  the  clerical  poet,  William  Lisle  Bowles 
(1762-1850),  which  may  be  worth  quoting. 

"Fallen  pile  !  I  ask  not  what  has  been  thy  fate, 
But  when  the  weak  winds,  wafted  from  the  main, 
Through  each  lone  arch,  like  spirits  that  complain, 
Come  hollow  to  my  ear,  I  meditate. 

On  this  world's  passing  pageant,  and  the  lot 
Of  those  who  once  might  proudly,  in  their  prime, 
Have  stood  with  giant  port,  till,  bowed  by  tune 
Or  injury,  their  ancient  boast  forgot. 

*  From  Ellis's  edition,  1809, 


304  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

They  might  have  sunk  like  thee  ;  though  thus  forlorn 
They  lift  their  heads  with  venerable  hairs, 
Bespent,  majestic  yet,  and  as  in  scorn 
Of  mortal  vanities  and  short-lived  cares  ; 

Even  so  dost  thou,  lifting  thy  forehead  grey, 
Smile  at  the  tempest,  and  Time's  sweeping  sway." 

Pevensey  is  now  a  mere  village,  and  from  the 
railway  station  being  situated  in  the  west  hamlet 
nearly  all  the  shops  are  in  that  part.  The  ancient 
corporation  was  dissolved  by  the  Act  of  1883,  the 
little  white  plastered  Town  Hall,  or  Court  House, 
with  lock-up  below  and  hall  above,  is  not  very 
interesting  in  itself.  In  the  church  is  preserved 
the  early  thirteenth-century  seal,  the  oldest  in  the 
possession  of  any  of  the  Cinque  Ports,  figured  in 
the  initial  letter  of  this  chapter ;  there  is  a  ship  on 
one  side  and  two  on  the  other,  with  an  invocation 
to  St.  Nicholas,  the  patron  of  the  church.  The 
Custonial  of  Pevensey  (p.  379),  dating  from  1357, 
of  which  a  fifteenth-century  translation  is  in  the 
Ashmolean  Museum  at  Oxford,  tells  us  "Thees  been 
the  Usages  and  Customes  of  the  Towne,  Porte  and 
of  the  Leege  of  Pevensey,  of  the  tymes  whereof  no 
mynd  is,"  and  it  provides  that  "  Everye  yere  on  the 
Mondaye  next  after  the  ffeaste  Saynte  Michael 
tharchangell  all  the  Comones  ...  be  wonte  to  be 
summoned  in  the  Churche  of  Saynte  Nicholas  "  to 
choose  a  bailiff,  also  a  portreeve.  Preserved  like- 
wise in  the  church  are  the  fine  Jacobean  silver- 
gilt  mace,  the  beadle's  hat,  cloak  and  staff,  and 
some  old  books.  The  Rate  Book,*  commencing  in 
1518  and  ending  in  1548,  gives  details  of  the 
"  Town  Scot " ;  for  instance,  in  1520  it  cost  John 

*  Help  from  papers  by  Rev.  A.  A.  Evans  in  compiling 
much  of  what  follows  is  gratefully  acknowledged. 


PEVENSEY  305 

Bray,  who  held  three  acres,  l^d.  (and  others  larger 
or  smaller  sums)  to  send  Henry  VIII.  "  for  the 
voyage  of  the  Lord  King  beyond  the  sea  to 
the  town  of  Calise  and  elsewhere"  to  figure  at 
the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold. 

From  the  Pevensey  Hundred  Book,  beginning  in 
1698,  we  learn  about  presentments  made  by  the 
Grand  Jury. 

"  1699.  Wee  present  Richard  Joans  and  John 
Wickason  for  Lying  about  at  their  own  Hands 
and  taking  away  of  poor  men's  worke. 

"  1711.  Wee  present  William  Albury  for  keeping 
a  Gray  hound  and  for  destroying  Coney's  and 
other  Gentlemen's  game  .  .  .  ffine  8s.  8d." 

From  the  Corporation  Accounts  we  learn  that 
"  one  third  pt.  of  the  Charges  and  Expenses  when 
the  Chief  Inhabitants  met  to  proclaim  his  Eoyall 
Maties  King  George  2nd,"  came  to  £01  05  00. 
This  seems  high,  but  perhaps  it  was  a  very  hot 
day.  Four-pence  laid  out  about  1730  "  for  crying 
notices  that  the  Street  Walkers  should  agree  with 
the  Bayliffe  "  seems  much  more  reasonable. 

The  church  itself  is  a  beautiful  Early  English 
structure,  erected  at  slightly  different  times 
towards  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
except  for  an  arch  on  each  side  of  the  west  end  of 
the  chancel  which  are  about  half  a  century  earlier. 
It  consists  of  nave  and  aisles  of  five  bays  and  a 
very  long  chancel,  not  in  line,  with  a  rebuilt  chapel 
on  the  north,  while  the  tower  rises  over  the  east 
end  of  the  north  aisle  of  the  nave.  A  corbel  of  one 
of  the  tower  arches  is  curious  in  displaying  the 
frayed  and  twisted  end  of  a  rope  carved  in  stone. 
The  nave  pillars  are  octagonal  and  clustered  in 
turn,  and  over  them  are  lancets  in  the  clearstory. 
The  chancel  is  slightly  earlier  than  the  nave,  its 

20 


306  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

roof  is  remarkable  with  arched  timbers  below  the 
collars ;  the  eastern  part  was  at  one  time  used  for 
housing  cattle,  at  another  for  storing  smuggled 
goods ;  but  this  disgraceful  state  of  affairs  is  at  an 
end,  and  the  building  has  been  well  restored.  The 
lancets  are  rather  plain  as  a  rule,  but  two  in  the 
southern  wall,  sometimes  called  the  twin  windows, 
are  beautifully  shafted  and  moulded.  The  church 
throughout  is  very  largely  renewed. 

In  the  north  aisle  is  a  fine  tomb  to  John 
Wheateley,  who  supplied  a  ship  to  fight  the 
Armada,  and  died  in  1616.  His  effigy  is  reclining 
on  its  side  with  two  strange  animals  at  the  base, 
black  marble  shafts  and  other  ornaments  charac- 
teristic of  the  period. 

Among  ecclesiastic  offenders  at  Pevensey  who 
got  into  trouble  with  the  Archdeacon  were  the 
following  : — 

"1612.  John  Peake,  Jurat,  is  presented  for 
working  upon  St.  Luke's  Day  and  likewise  the 
fifth  of  November  with  his  oxen  and  harness." 

"Thomas  Austen  is  presented  for  not  livinge 
and  dwellinge  with  his  wyffe." 

Sundry  people  were  likewise  presented  for  not 
coming  duly  to  church.  That  the  ecclesiastical 
and  municipal  authorities  did  not  always  work 
together  appears  from  the  following  entry  in  the 
Parish  Register,  reflecting  on  the  bailiff  or  mayor. 

"  Jany  :  17th,  1773.  The  Body  of  8  man  drown'd 
at  Sea  was  buried  naked  in  the  Beach  because 
Mr.  John  Breden  the  then  Bailiffe  wod  not  permit 
the  person  who  found  it  to  bring  it  up  to  be 
buried  in  the  Churchyard.  The  Minister  desired 
to  have  it  brot  up  and  he  wod  bury  it  without 
any  Fees:  but  the  HUMANE  Jurat  forbad  it. 
O  Jus  &c.  &c." 


PEVENSEY  307 

Some  of  the  churchwardens'  disbursements 
during  1776  are  thus  itemised : — 

£     s.     d. 

Paid  for  liquor  for  the  ringers  the  whole 

year  0  19  0 

Pd.  Mr.  Bourne  for  teaching  nine  people  to 

sing,  and  a  pipe ...  1  5  6 

Pd.  for  a  pint  of  wine  at  signing  of  breffs     010 

Paid  Mrs.  Tarrett  for  liquor  when  at  work 

in  ye  Church  ...  ...  0  6  5 

Paid  Joe  Tichbon  for  going  to  Mr.  Mark- 
wick  for  advice ...  0  1  6 

Of  the  old  houses  in  the  town  by  far  the  most 
interesting  is  that  once  occupied  by  Andrew 
Boorde,  supposed  to  be  the  original  Merry 
Andrew.  It  is  now  called  the  Mint  House,  and 
is  boomed  by  boards  along  the  roads  leading  to 
Pevensey  as  the  grandest  sight  in  Sussex.  That 
the  Pevensey  Mint,  which  existed  till  the  reign 
of  Stephen,  was  here  is  perhaps  as  likely  as  that 
it  was  in  any  other  specific  spot  in  the  town  (it 
would  be  rash  to  say  more),  but  the  so-called 
Mint  Room  is  a  very  ordinary  back  kitchen  or 
scullery  whose  chimney  is  partly  of  brick.  A 
ghost  lives  in  a  small  chamber  near  by.  The 
outside  of  the  house  is  largely  weather-tiled  and 
altered  in  character,  but  the  interior  is  framed 
of  solid  oak  timbers  and  in  some  places  the  plaster 
between  them  is  frescoed,  the  subjects  being 
chiefly  foliage,  in  one  case  enclosing  a  cherub,  in 
another  a  motto  intended  to  be  read  "Give  ye 
of  that  little  to  my  bretheren  also,"  though  a 
word  is  miswritten.  This  is  obviously  from  Tobit 
iv.  8.  The  character  of  the  fresco  work  in  the 
two  rooms  where  it  exists  is  different.  Outside 
is  a  stone  dated  1542  (which  some  one  has  tried 


308  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

to  alter  to  1342),  and  this  is  probably  the  period 
of  most  of  the  building.  There  is  some  carved 
Jacobean  panelling,  and  the  house  has  been  well 
restored. 

Andrew  Boorde  was  Sussex  born,  and  after 
his  studies  at  Oxford  he  joined  the  Carthu- 
sian Order,  but  only  to  find  that  his  nature  was 
much  too  funny  for  that  sad  rule,  and,  wander- 
ing about  to  various  places  on  the  Continent,  he 
graduated  in  physic  at  Montpellier  in  1542.  It 
was  his  custom  to  harangue  the  people  at  fairs 
and  markets,  endeavouring  to  draw  their  attention 
to  his  medical  skill.  Though  his  brother  was 
their  vicar,  he  had  a  poor  opinion  of  the  people 
of  Pevensey,  or  Gotham  as  he  calls  the  place. 
With  laboured  humour  he  accuses  their  wise 
men  of  executing  an  eel  by  drowning  and  their 
grand  jury  of  finding  a  man  guilty  of  man- 
slaughter for  stealing  a  pair  of  leather  breeches. 
He  died  in  Fleet  Prison  in  1549. 

His  Book  of  the  Introduction  of  Knowledge  claims 
to  "  teach  a  man  to  speak  part  of  all  manner  of 
languages,  and  to  know  the  usage  and  fashion 
of  all  manner  of  countries,  and  to  know  the  most 
part  of  all  manner  of  coins  of  money  which  is 
current  in  every  region."  An  Englishman  is 
represented  very  insufficiently  covered  except  for 
a  hat  with  a  large  feather,  and  in  one  hand  he 
holds  a  huge  pair  of  shears  ;  over  the  other  arm 
he  has  a  bundle  of  cloth,  and  he  says — 

"I  am  an  Englishman  and  naked  I  stand  here, 
Musing  in  my  mind  what  rayment  I  shall  were  ; 
For  now  I  wyl  were  thys,  and  now  I  wyl  were  that, 
Now  I  wyl  were  I  cannot  tell  what." 

Commenting  on  this  passage  Holinshed  tells  us  : 


PEVENSEY  309 

"  Certes  this  writer  (otherwise  being  a  lewd  popish 
hypocrite  and  vngratious  priest)  shewed  himselfe 
herein  not  to  be  altogether  void  of  iudgement, 
sith  the  phantasticall  follie  of  our  nation,  even 
from  the  courtier  to  the  carter  is  such,  that  no 
forme  of  apparell  liketh  vs  longer  than  the  first 
garment  is  in  the  wearing." 

Holinshed  is  rather  hard  on  poor  Merry  Andrew, 
but  when  one  comes  on  such  a  passage  as  the 
following  one  does  feel  that  he  was  one  of  those 
who  hope  to  improve  the  world  rather  by  what 
they  say  than  by  what  they  do — 

' '  1!  The  Auctor  respondeth  : 
O  good  Englyshe  man,  here  what  I  shall  say ; 
Study  to  have  learning,  with  vertue  night  and  day  ; 
Leve  thy  swearyng,  and  set  pryde  a  syde, 
And  cal  thou  for  grace  that  with  thee  it  may  byde." 

The  church  of  Westham  (west  hamlet),  which 
forms  so  beautiful  a  picture  amid  its  foliage  when 
seen  from  Anderida  framed  by  the  ivied  ruins 
of  the  gateway,  is  older  than  anything  existing 
in  Pevensey  church.  The  arch  into  the  south 
transept  and  the  south  wall  of  the  nave  with 
splayed  windows  are  parts  of  a  cruciform  Norman 
church,  which  seems  to  have  had  three  eastern 
apses  opening  from  chancel  and  transepts.  A 
north  aisle  was  added  in  the  Early  English  period 
and  its  arcade  remains.  The  rest  of  the  building 
is  good  fifteenth-century  work,  including  chancel, 
aisle  walls,  porch  with  niches  and  fine  tower  with 
flint  and  stone  in  squares  and  a  perfect  stoup  by 
its  door.  A  rood  turret  projects  from  the  aisle, 
a  bay  from  its  east  end ;  there  was  a  second  rood 
stair  just  north  of  the  chancel  arch ;  under  the 
east  window  is  an  inlaid  cross  of  flint.  The  nave 


310  THE    SUSSEX   COAST 

has  a  fine  old  timber  roof,  each  bracket  rises  from 
a  log  that  is  laid  across  two  corbels,  queen-posts 
rest  on  the  tie-beams  and  support  collars,  above 
which  are  interesting  struts. 

The  most  famous  of  the  vicars  of  Westham 
was  probably  Brian  Duppa,  Vice-Chancellor  of 
Oxford  University  and  Bishop  of  Chichester  under 
Charles  I.;  Bishop  of  Winchester  at  the  Restora- 
tion. He  had  been  tutor  to  Charles  II.,  and  is 
buried  in  Westminster  Abbey.  Miles  Hodgson 
was  vicar  from  1593  to  1625 ;  he  stole  the  old 
altar  slab  for  the  gravestone  of  his  first  wife, 
which  showed  a  lack  of  reverence  for  which  he 
might  have  made  excuses ;  in  answer  to  questions 
from  Archbishop  Whitgift  he  replied,  "  I  hold 
the  vicaridge  of  Hailesham  and  Westham  both 
with  Cure  .  .  .  and  the  said  vicaridges  doe  joyne 
both  together,  the  Churches  being  distant  twoe 
myles  or  thereabout  the  one  from  the  other," 
which  showed  a  lying  disposition  for  which  he 
cannot  be  excused.  As  the  crow  flies  the  distance 
is  four  miles  and  a  half,  by  the  nearest  road  more 
than  six.  The  altar  slab  has  been  restored,  three 
of  its  crosses  remain. 

The  flat  marshes  round  Pevensey  slightly  recall 
Holland.  The  roads  that  cross  them  can  be  felt 
to  vibrate  as  a  heavy  motor  rushes  past. 


T  was  not  till  a  thousand  years  after 
the  Roman  defences  of  Pevensey  had 
been  constructed,  not  before  the  storms 
of  more  than  three  hundred  winters 
had  weathered  the  masonry  of  its 
Norman  towers  that  there  was  built 
at  Herstmonceux  the  most  beautiful  of  our  Sussex 
castles.  The  low  hills  that  here  roll  down  to  the 
flats  from  the  iiplands  of  the  Forest  Ridge  are 
not  in  themselves  so  beautiful  as  many  another 
part  of  the  county,  but  the  magnificent  colouring 
of  the  brickwork  and  the  fair  outline  of  the 
battlements  among  the  trees  of  the  park,  com- 
bined with  so  many  associations  reaching  to  our 
own  time,  make  this  one  of  the  most  attractive 
and  interesting  spots  in  the  whole  of  ^Sussex. 
Herstmonceux  appears  in  Domesday  as  Herst, 
held  of  the  Earl  of  Eu  (p.  336)  by  Webert ;  in  the 

311 


312  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

time  of  the  Confessor  it  had  been  held  by  Edmer, 
a  priest  "who  could  change  his  residence  and 
transfer  his  lands  at  pleasure"  (the  precise 
significance  of  this  is  explained  at  length  in 
Maitland's  monumental  Domesday  Book  and 
Beyond).  In  1199,*  the  place  was  held  by  one 
Waleran  de  Herst,  who  took  the  additional  name 
of  Monceux  from  a  little  place  in  the  Diocese  of 
Bayeux  with  which  his  family  were  connected 
in  Normandy.  A  later  namesake  supported  Simon 
de  Montfort.  By  marriage  the  place  passed  to 
the  family  of  Fienes,  and  one  of  them,  Sir  William, 
who  died  in  1402,  has  a  fine  large  brass  in  the 
chancel  of  the  church,  armour  with  sword  and 
dagger,  the  feet  on  an  alaune,  or  wolf-dog,  the 
"supporter"  of  the  house,  inscription  in  Norman 
French.  By  his  son  Roger,  who  had  fought  at 
Agincourt,  the  existing  castle  was  built  about 
1440,  remarkable  as  one  of  the  earliest  large 
brick  structures  erected  in  England  after  Roman 
days.  Stone  for  the  dressings  are  most  sparingly 
used,  which  is  the  more  remarkable  as  the  bricks 
were  probably  brought  from  Flanders.  A  few 
black  bricks  form  simple  patterns  among  the  red 
ones  of  which  the  walls  consist. 

The  castle  is  very  regular  and  nearly  square, 
a  little  over  200  feet  each  way  ;  at  the  four  corners 
rise  four  great  octagonal  towers ;  each  side  has 
three  other  towers,  mostly  semi-octagonal  and  not 
rising  above  the  walls.  The  central  one  on  the 
south  takes  the  form  of  a  magnificent  gateway 
rising  above  all  the  rest ;  two  octagonal  turrets 
are  connected  by  a  rather  thin  arch  enclosing 
the  actual  gateway  and  the  window  over  it ;  there 
are  very  ornate  projecting  machicolations  at  the 

*fc Appears  for  that  year  on  Rot.  Cur.  Regis. 


Cooper,'] 


[Eastbourne. 


HERSTMONCEUX   PARK. 


Hannah. 


WEST   DEAN. 


To  face  p.  312. 


HERSTMONCEUX  AND   BEXHILL       313 

top  of  the  stage  above,  over  which  is  a  now 
ruinous  story  with  round  turrets.  Three  ranges 
of  cross-shaped  openings  for  arrows,  round  ones 
for  firearms,  and  the  formidable-looking  battle- 
ments by  which  the  sky-line  is  everywhere  fretted, 
give  more  of  the  appearance  than  of  the  substance 
of  strength,  for  the  walls  are  comparatively  thin 
and  the  castle  could  never  have  sustained  a  really 
formidable  siege.  Slits  aside  of  the  chief  entrance 
were  for  the  drawbridge  chains,  and  a  three-arch 
bridge  is  built  ever  the  moat  to  meet  it.  The 
moat  everywhere  touches  the  actual  walls  in 
the  manner  characteristic  of  France ;  on  three 
sides  its  outer  edge  is  protected  by  brickwork ; 
on  the  fourth,  towards  the  east,  it  swells  out  into 
a  regular  lake — or  rather  it  did  so  once,  for  at 
present  it  is  entirely  dry.  On  this  east  side  the 
castle  windows  are  very  much  larger  than  else- 
where, being  deemed  sufficiently  protected  from 
attack ;  the  central  tower  and  the  one  just  south 
of  it  are  round,  the  former  containing  the  chapel 
apse,  the  latter  having  a  beautiful  mullioned  bow- 
window  that  lighted  some  comfortable  bower. 

The  interior  of  the  castle  was  arranged  with 
four  little  courts  of  different  sizes,  the  two  front 
ones  divided  by  a  cloister ;  no  part  retains  its  roof, 
and  though  the  outer  wall  is  nearly  perfect  there 
is  less  in  the  way  of  interior  detail  than  might 
have  been  looked  for;  a  vaulted  passage  runs 
all  round  underneath,  and  there  are  various  cellars, 
including  an  octagonal  crypt  beneath  the  chapel, 
which  retains  a  rough  piscina.  The  huge  kitchen 
chimney  and  oven  are  to  be  seen  on  the  west. 
In  this  great  building  we  are  really  very  much 
nearer  the  Tudor  mansion  than  the  older  mediaeval 
castle.  It  resembles  Tattershall  Castle,  Lincolnshire. 


314  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

It  is  locally  credited  with  having  contained 
365  windows  and  52  chimneys,  but  this  in  one 
form  or  another  is  an  exceedingly  common  claim. 
For  instance,  De  Foe  tells  us  of  Salisbury 
Cathedral — 

"  As  many  Days  as  in  one  year  there  be, 
So  many  windows  in  one  Church  we  see  ; 
As  many  Marble  Pillars  there  appear, 
As  there  are  Hours  throughout  the  fleeting  Year; 
As  many  Gates  as  Moons  one  Year  do  view  : 
Strange  Tale  to  tell,  yet  not  more  strange  than  true." 

The  son  of  the  builder,  Sir  Richard  Fienes, 
married  the  Dacre  heiress  and  became  a  peer. 
To  the  second  Lord  Dacre  of  the  Fienes  family, 
who  died  in  1534,  there  is  a  magnificent  monument 
between  the  chancel  and  the  north  chapel  of  the 
church ;  it  is  canopied  with  ornately  cusped  arches 
and  adorned  with  the  elaborate  niches  and  panel- 
ling characteristic  of  late  Perpendicular  detail, 
singularly  free  from  the  Renaissance  influence 
usually  found  at  so  late  a  date.  The  nobleman 
and  a  son  who  died  before  him  have  recumbent 
effigies  side  by  side,  their  feet  on  alaunes.  The 
next  Lord  Dacre  when  on  a  poaching  expedition 
killed  a  man,  and,  tried  before  Lord  Audley  of 
Walden,  was  executed,  but,  to  the  disappointment 
of  various  greedy  courtiers,  the  strict  entail 
prevented  the  estate  (after  which  Camden  tells 
us  they  gaped)  from  lapsing  to  the  Crown.  It 
brings  home  how  completely  the  Commonwealth 
struggle  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  a  contest 
of  principles  rather  than  of  classes  to  realise  that 
Francis,  the  Lord  of  Dacre  of  that  day,  took  the 
Roundhead  side. 

In    days   gone   by   a   ghostly   drummer    in    one 


HERSTMONCEUX  AND  BEXHILL      315 

of  the  castle  towers  used  to  keep  the  neighbour- 
hood in  alarm  by  his  nightly  tattoo.  Horace 
Walpole  suggested  that  this  was  the  inspiration 
of  Addison's  unsuccessful  comedy  The  Drummer, 
but  it  is  most  unlikely ;  in  all  probability  the  drum 
and  the  ghostly  legends  were  purely  for  the 
benefit  of  smugglers.  A  letter  of  Walpole's, 
written  in  1752,  gives  an  interesting  description 
of  his  visit  to  the  castle :  "It  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  ever  quite  finished,  or  at  least 
that  age  was  not  arrived  at  the  luxury  of 
white-washing,  for  almost  all  the  walls,  except 
in  the  principle  chambers,  are  in  their  native 
brick-work.  .  .  .  One  side  has  been  sashed,  and 
a  drawing  and  dining  room,  and  two  or 
three  other  rooms  wainscoted  by  the  Earl  of 
Sussex,  who  married  a  natural  daughter  of 
Charles  II.  Their  arms,  with  delightful  carvings 
by  Gibbon,  particularly  two  pheasants,  hang  over 
the  chimney.  Over  the  great  drawing-room 
chimney  is  the  coat  armour  of  the  first 
Lennard,  Lord  Dacre,  with  all  his  alliances.  The 
chapel  is  small  and  mean ;  the  Virgin  and  seven 
long,  lean  saints,  ill  done,  remain  in  the  windows ; 
there  have  been  four  more  which  seem  to  have 
been  removed  for  light ;  and  we  actually  found 
S.  Catherine,  and  another  gentlewoman  with  a 
church  in  her  hand,  exiled  into  the  buttery.  .  .  . 
We  walked  up  a  brave  old  avenue  to  the  church, 
with  ships  sailing  on  our  left  hand  the  whole 
way." 

The  sea  is,  however,  nearly  four  miles  off  in  a 
straight  line.  The  church  stands  high  up  and 
rather  lonely,  no  other  buildings  being  very  near ; 
it  was  erected  near  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century, 
and  the  octagonal  pillars  of  the  nave  arcades  have 


316  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

palm-leaf  caps  ;  in  the  north-west  corner  is  a  very 
low  arcaded  tower  with  north-east  stair  and  a 
shingled  spire  rises  above.  The  narrow  lower 
windows  are  square-headed  without  and  have 
lancet  arches  within.  In  the  south  aisle  is  a  cusped 
sepulchral  recess  that  seems  early  fourteenth-cen- 
tury work.  The  chancel  and  its  north  chapel, 
which  contain  the  monuments  already  mentioned, 
are  of  plain  brickwork  and  apparently  contem- 
porary with  the  castle  ;  on  the  north  is  a  miniature 
niche  for  a  figure,  about  four  inches  high. 

In  1708  Thomas  Lord  Dacre  sold  Herstmonceux 
to  George  Naylor,  of  Lincoln's  Inn.  Now  the  Bishop 
of  Chichester  between  1731  and  1740  was  Francis 
Hare,  and  he  was  neither  a  great  man  nor  a  good. 
He  married  his  cousin,  the  sister  of  Mr.  Naylor,  and 
their  eldest  son  in  due  course  became  a  member 
of  the  "  Hell  Fire  Club,"  which  met  at  Medmen- 
ham  Abbey,  on  the  Thames.  When,  other  heirs 
failing,  this  gay  young  spark  inherited  Herstmon- 
ceux the  Bishop  made  it  his  home  for  a  time,  and 
was  much  disgusted  at  the  huge  cost  of  keeping  it 
up.  His  letters  growl  about  the  expense  of  the 
unremunerative  deer  park,  from  which  "half  the 
county  expected  to  be  supplied  with  venison " ; 
about  the  twenty  weeding  women  who  had  to  be 
maintained  to  keep  the  courts  in  order ;  about  the 
beer-butts  that  had  to  be  placed  by  the  highway 
for  the  benefit  of  every  passer-by  who  chanced  to 
thirst.  For  all  this  there  was  perhaps  some 
ground,  and  among  other  extravagances  which 
custom  prescribed  that  the  owner  of  the  castle 
should  indulge  in  was  the  keeping,  so  it  is  said,  of 
no  less  than  four  persons  whose  sole  duty  was 
to  wind  the  clocks.  However,  when  the  prelate's 
wife  died  he  consoled  himself  in  an  indecently 


HERSTMONCEUX  AND  BEXHILL       317 

short  time  with  the  hand  of  Margaret  Alston,  who 
brought  him   a  large  estate  in  Buckinghamshire, 
which  on  the  whole  he  preferred  to  Herstmonceux. 
Her  sister  was   afterwards   married   by    the    ex- 
member  of  the  Hell  Fire  Club,  who  thus  became 
his   (late)  father's  brother-in-law.     When  he  died 
the  castle  passed  to  Robert  Hare,  son  of  the  Bishop 
by  Margaret  Alston.     His  affectionate  godfather, 
Sir  Robert  Walpole,  had  given  him  as  a  christening 
gift  the  dignified  office  of  Sweeper  of  Gravesend, 
whose  duties  seem  to  have  consisted  of  sweeping 
in  £400   a  year  and  once  in   the   twelve   months 
going  to  the  mouth  of  the  Thames  to  dole  out  ten 
guineas  of  it  to  the  watermen.     The  Sweeper  was 
likewise  a  clerk  in  Holy  Orders  and  a  canon   of 
Winchester.     His  second  wife,  Henrietta  Henekell, 
was   a  woman   designing  and  bad,  who  had  the 
castle  inspected  by  James  Wya'tt,  the  destructive 
architect  who  wrought  so  much  mischief  to  our 
cathedrals,  though  he  made  some  slight  atonement 
in  Sussex  by  building  a  striking  Gothic  church  at 
East  Gr instead  about  the  year  1790.     This  vandal 
recommended  the  demolition  of  Herstmonceux  as 
dangerous  and  unsafe.     Destroyed  it  accordingly 
was,  all  but  the  outside  shell,  and  all  that  it  con- 
tained was  disposed  of  by  a  great  sale  in  the  park. 
The  reason  for  all  this  iniquity  was  that  the  newer 
house  which  Wyatt  enlarged  and  made  even  uglier 
than   the    usual    buildings   of    the    period,   using 
materials  from  the  old  castle,  was  believed  to  be 
on  unentailed  land,  so  that  it  could  be  willed  to 
Henrietta's  own  son  and  her  stepson  be  defrauded. 
Providence,    however,    by    no     means     invariably 
ordains   that  the  ungodly  shall   flourish   even   in 
this  world,  and  it  was  eventually  found  that  the 
site  of  the  new  house  was  equally  entailed  with 


318  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

that  of  the  castle,  so  that  the  object  of  the  plot  of 
the  wife  of  the  Sweeper  of  Gravesend  was  wholly 
frustrated,  while  the  ruined  castle  pours  everlasting 
infamy  on  her  name. 

The  Sweeper's  eldest  son,  Francis  Hare-Naylor, 
best  known  for  his  History  of  Germany  from  the 
Landing  of  Gustavus  to  Treaty  of  Westphalia,  was 
extremely  democratic  in  his  views,  and  altogether 
an  interesting  personality.  He  had  married  Geor- 
giana,  a  daughter  of  Bishop  Shipley,  of  St.  Asaph, 
whose  sister  was  the  wife  of  the  great  Indian 
scholar,  Sir  William  Jones.  She  was  a  good 
scholar  and  a  noble  woman,  who  had  the  courage 
to  defy  her  father  when,  somewhat  backward  in 
practising  the  ideals  he  had  vowed  to  preach,  he 
wished  to  arrange  for  her  a  "  better  "  marriage — 
in  plain  English,  one  more  commercially  advan- 
tageous. So  with  her  husband  she  lived  at  Bologna 
when  they  could  not  afford  to  live  in  England,  and 
when  they  inherited  Herstmonceux  they  occupied 
it  for  eight  happy  years.  On  her  death,  however, 
in  1806,  it  was  sold,  and  has  several  times  since 
changed  hands. 

Much  of  the  castle,  especially  the  great  gateway 
tower,  was  in  danger  of  speedy  collapse,  but  the 
new  purchaser  (Claud  Lowther)  is  repairing  and 
repointing  the  ruins  and  rebuilding  part  in  the 
most  careful  and  judicious  way  ;  metal  girders  are 
being  extensively  used,  but,  of  course,  kept  out  of 
sight ;  the  gateway  vault  is  rebuilt  in  thin  bricks, 
much  as  it  originally  was  ;  and  everything  is  being 
done  to  restore  the  original  character  of  the  place 
(May,  1911).  It  is  a  good  work,  for  which  he 
deserves  the  sincerest  thanks  of  all  true  Sussexians. 

But  we  have  not  yet  done  with  the  Hares  of 
Herstmonceux.  Under  the  old  yew-tree  in  the 


HERSTMONCEUX  AND  BEXHILL       319 

churchyard  lies  Julius  Charles  Hare,  Rector  of 
Herstmonceux  and  Archdeacon  of  Lewes  (d.  1855), 
son  of  Francis  Hare-Naylor,  while  a  few  feet  off 
under  a  thorn-tree  lies  his  sister-in-law  Maria 
(whose  husband,  Augustus  William  Hare,  incum- 
bent of  Alton  Barnes,  died  in  Rome),  and  by  her 
side  her  nephew  and  godson,  Augustus  J.  C.  Hare, 
with  his  old  nurse.  His  name  appears  at  the  head, 
that  of  his  nurse  at  the  foot,  of  the  same  grave. 
In  his  Memorials  of  a  Quiet  Life  he  has  written  the 
biography  of  Maria  Hare,  and  given  a  pretty  com- 
plete account  of  the  family  for  several  generations. 
It  is  a  work  in  which  we  get  the  most  charming 
picture  of  the  best  side  of  clerical  life  in  villages 
during  the  early  nineteenth  century — the  life  that 
the  late  Bishop  Durnford,  of  honoured  memory 
throughout  Sussex,  declared  to  be  the  happiest  in 
all  the  world.  Maria's  devotion  to  her  husband 
and  care  for  all  the  parishioners,  the  intense  reli- 
gious fervour  that  breathes  throughout  her  letters, 
her  keen  enjoyment  of  the  smallest  joys,  and  the 
air  of  peace  that  pervaded  her  whole  life  (despite 
the  agricultural  riots  that  she  witnessed)  make  the 
perusal  of  this  work  one  of  the  most  restful  and 
soothing  occupations  it  is  possible  to  have,  while  its 
interest  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the  Continental 
connections  of  the  family.  We  cannot  turn  from 
these  graves  without  a  thrill ;  the  world  is  better 
that  such  people  have  lived.  Curate  for  a  short 
time  to  Archdeacon  Hare  was  John  Sterling,  the 
author,  who  was  only  prevented  fighting  against 
Ferdinand  VII.  of  Spain  by  his  marriage,  who 
managed  a  sugar  estate  at  St.  Vincent  and  was 
made  famous  by  Carlyle's  biography. 

For  several  years  a  robin  has  been  accustomed 
to   build   its   nest  and  to  rear   its  young  in    the 


320  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

organ  of  the  church.  In  1911  the  organ  was  being 
rebuilt,  so  the  nest  was  lifted  on  to  the  sill  of 
an  adjacent  window,  where  the  young  birds  were 
reared  in  the  odour  of  sanctity.  This  trifling 
circumstance  seems  specially  to  embody  the  peace 
that  pervades  Herstmonceux.  The  village  is  still 
the  centre  of  the  trug  industry.  Trugs  are  strong 
baskets  of  wood ;  lathes,  usually  of  willow,  being 
nailed  to  the  strong  ash  frame  and  handle.  They 
are  commonly  used  in  most  Sussex  gardens,  and 
are  sent  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  county  and 
even  of  the  kingdom.  The  inventor  was  one 
Thomas  Smith,  about  three  generations  ago,  and 
they  have  gained  prizes  at  exhibitions  in  Paris 
and  elsewhere. 

The  next  village  is  Wartling,  a  pretty  little 
place  with  large  walnut-trees  and  hawthorn  pink 
and  white  among  the  cottages.  The  little  church 
has  no  details  earlier  than  Perpendicular,  though 
the  walls  look  older  in  parts ;  the  nave  has  short 
side  chapels  and  the  chancel  has  tablets  to  the 
Luxford  and  Curteis  families  of  Windmill  Hill : 
the  latter  came  from  Tenterden  in  Kent,  a  limb 
of  the  Cinque  Ports  dependent  on  Rye  in  the 
late  eighteenth  century,  and  happily  live  here 
still.  On  the  south  wall  appear  in  relief  a 
Catherine-wheel  and  the  buckle  of  the  illustrious 
Pelhams;  the  latter  was  won,  it  is  said,  when,  in 
1356,  the  French  king  surrendered  to  Sir  John 
and  handed  to  him  his  buckle  as  a  token.  It  is 
found  on  Kobertsbridge  Abbey  and  nine  other 
churches  of  Sussex,*  showing  the  liberality  of 
the  family  in  contributing  to  good  works. 

*  Waldron,  Laughton,  Chiddingly,  Bype,  East  Hoathly, 
Crowhurst,  Burwash,  Ashburnham,  Dallington.  The  initial 
letter  is  from  the  buckle  at  Crowhurst. 


HERSTMONCEUX   AND   BEXHILL       321 

Some  four  miles  to  the  north-east  through  the 
pleasant  fields  and  woods  of  the  Weald  the  way- 
farer reaches  Standard  Hill  where,  according  to 
a  tradition  (which  is  almost  certainly  wrong),  on 
his  road  to  the  battle  the  Conqueror  raised  the 
banner  that  the  Pope  of  Rome  had  blessed.  There 
is  an  old  farm-house  built  by  a  Puritan  and  in- 
scribed with  texts,  one  of  which  was  literally 
truer  than  he  knew,  since  the  Restoration  was 
to  come  next  year.  **  Here  we  have  (1659)  no 
abidence."  Just  beyond  is  Ninfield,  with  a  little 
church  much  altered  but  with  samples  of  many 
dates.  A  lintel  composed  of  three  stones  has  a 
very  early  look,  and  Sir  Gilbert  Scott  was  "  inclined 
to  think  it  may  date  from  before  the  Danish 
Invasion."  There  is  rather  plain  Early  English  and 
Perpendicular  work,  the  priest's  door  is  dated  1671 
and  the  south  porch  1735  ;  there  is  a  fine  old  yew. 

In  a  little  clump  of  fir-trees  at  cross-roads  are 
the  old  parish  stocks,  four  holes  for  the  feet  and 
staples  for  the  hands  against  an  upright  at  the 
end,  all  of  Sussex  iron.  Throughout  the  old  iron 
district,  comprising  the  whole  region  of  the  Forest 
Ridge,  the  very  substantial  work  of  the  Sussex 
ironmasters  is  to  be  seen  in  the  form  of  articles 
of  a  somewhat  miscellaneous  character.  In 
addition  to  fire-backs  and  domestic  utensils  of 
all  kinds,  ordnance  was  extensively  cast  in  Tudor 
and  later  days,  while  mile-stones  and  even  grave- 
slabs  of  iron  are  frequently  met  with.  As  a  rule 
the  fire-backs  are  the  most  varied  and  ornamental 
in  design,  many  of  them  bear  dates  in  the  sixteenth, 
seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries.  Massive 
solidity  rather  than  precise  finish  characterises 
nearly  all  the  ironwork  and  seems  to  reflect  the 
Sussex  character. 

21 


322  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

The  Weald  en  ironworks  date  from  pre-Roman 
days,  and  are  mentioned  by  Caesar  (De  Bella  Gallico, 
Bk.  v.  ch.  12) ;  they  were  encouraged  in  the  tenth 
century  by  the  excellent  Dunstan,  statesman- 
bishop.  On  a  famous  occasion  at  Mayfield  with 
tongs  of  Sussex  iron,  in  the  words  of  the  old 
doggerel — 


Saynt  Dunstan  (as  the  story  goes) 
Caught  old  Sathanas  by  the  nose  ; 
He  tugged  soe  hard  and  made  him  roar, 
That  he  was  heard  three  miles  and  more." 


His  (he  in  Sussex  always  means  the  devil)  efforts 
to  cool  the  burnt  part  of  him  by  plunging  his 
nose  into  water  caused  the  chalybeate  character 
of  a  spring  at  Tunbridge  Wells,  to  whose  site  he 
had  fled  from  the  presence  of  the  Saint.  On 
another  occasion  St.  Dunstan  had  a  quarrel  with 
the  common  enemy  of  mankind.  He  was  banished 
for  his  boldness  in  rebuking  King  Edwy  for  mis- 
behaviour of  the  grossest  kind,  when,  to  quote 
Holinshed,  "This  is  also  reported,  that  when  he 
should  depart  the  realme,  the  diuell  was  heard 
in  the  west  end  of  the  church,  taking  up  a  great 
laughter  after  his  roring  maner,  as  though  he 
should  shew  himselfe  glad  and  ioifull  at  Dunstanes 
going  into  exile.  But  Dunstane  perceiuing  his 
behauiour,  spake  to  him,  and  said:  Well  thou 
aduersarie,  doo  not  so  greatly  reioise  at  the  matter, 
for  thou  dooest  not  now  so  much  reioise  at  my 
departure,  but  by  God's  grace  thou  shalt  be  as 
sorrowfull  for  my  returne." 

Sussex  iron-stone  is  of  a  low  grade  and  the 
furnaces  could  only  be  kept  going  by  a  tremendous 
consumption  of  the  woods  that  many  writers 


HERSTMONCEUX  AND   BEXHILL       323 

deplore.     For  instance,  Drayton's  Polyolbion  wails 
thus : — 

* '  These  Forrests  as  I  say,   the  daughters  of  the  Weald 
(That  in  their  heavie  breasts,   had  long  their  greefs  con- 

ceal'd) 

Foreseeing  their  decay  each  howre  so  fast  came  on, 
Vnder  the  axes  stroak,  fetcht  many  a  grievous  grone, 
When  as  the  anviles  weight,  and  hammers  dreadfull  sound, 
Even    rent    the   hollow    Woods   and    shook   the   queachy 

ground. 

*  *  *  *  * 

loves  Oke,  the  warlike  Ash,  veyn'd  Elme,  the  softer  Beech, 
Short  Hazell,  Maple-plaine,  light  Aspe,  the  bending  Wych, 
Tough  Holly,  and  smooth  Birch,  must  altogether  burne  : 
What  should  the  Builder  serve,  supplies  the  Forgers  turn  ; 
When  under  publike  good,  base  private  gaine  takes  holde, 
And  we  poor  woefull  Woods,  to  mine  lastly  solde." 

Foreign  competition  was  severely  felt  by  the 
ironworkers  during  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
a  petition  to  Charles  II.  proposed  what  we  should 
now  call  Tariff  Reform  as  a  remedy  :  "  Now  for- 
asmuch as  some  Northerne  Countryes  beyond 
Sea,  are  so  extraordinarily  abounding  in  woods 
iron  mine  and  other  conveniencyes  for  making 
Iron,  and  especially  by  ye  cheapnes  of  theyr  mens 
labor  who  work  as  Slaves  (nor  wth  that  liberty 
wh  the  meanest  of  yr  Maties  subjects  comfortably 
enjoy)  that  of  late  years  (having  erected  greater 
store  of  iron  works  than  they  had  formerly)  they 
are  thereby  enabled  to  send  vast  quantities  of 
that  commodity  to  other  Nacions,  and  particularly 
since  the  yeare  *  into  this  kingdome  and  dayly 
more  and  more  continue  to  doe  eaven  from  wares 
ready  wrought  to  the  undoing  of  our  Smiths  and 

*  Apparently  the  year  was  never  filled  in. 


324  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

the  dishartening  and  (in  short  time)  destroying 
of  our  said  important  manufacture  of  iron  which 
once  totally  decayed  is  not  recoverable  .  .  .  and 
most  of  these  that  are  kept  working  is  rather  don 
to  spend  the  whole  stock  then  for  other  profit 
made  thereby  for  they  sell  the  sd  iron  soe  imported 
hither,  at  cheaper  rates  for  the  reasons  above- 
mentioned  than  is  possible  to  be  affoorded  here 
without  loss  to  the  maker,  wh  causes  many  to  wish 
well  to  such  strange  importation,  not  reflecting 
that  when  they  shal  have  engrossed  into  theyr 
hands  the  sole  manufacture  (wch  wil  inevitably 
follow  upon  the  decay  of  our  sd  ironworks  .  .  . 
wh  in  time  of  warr  might  absolutely  ruin  us,"  &c.* 
Holinshed  had  at  an  earlier  date  expressed  a 
somewhat  hesitating  preference  for  free  trade  in 
the  matter.  "  Iron  is  found  in  manie  places,  as  in 
Sussex  ...  of  which  mines  diuerse  doo  bring 
foorth  so  fine  and  good  stuffe,  as  anie  that 
commeth  from  beyond  the  sea,  beside  the  infinit 
gaines  to  the  owners,  if  we  would  so  accept  it,  or 
bestow  a  little  more  cost  in  the  refining  of  it.  It 
is  also  of  such  toughnesse,  that  it  yeeldeth  to  the 
making  of  claricord  wire  in  some  places  of  the 
realme.  Neuerthelesse,  it  was  better  cheape  with 
vs  when  strangers  onelie  brought  it  hither  :  for  it 
is  our  qualitie  when  we  get  anie  commoditie,  to  vse 
it  with  extremitie  towards  our  owne  nation,  after 
we  have  once  found  the  meanes  to  shut  out 
forreners  from  the  bringing  in  of  the  like.  It 
breedeth  in  like  manner  great  expense  and  waste 
of  wood."  The  last  work  of  importance  carried 
out  by  the  Sussex  ironworkers  was  the  railing 
that  enclosed  St.  Paul's,  heavy,  effective,  and 
eminently  suitable  to  the  architecture  of  the 
*  Printed  in  S.A.C.,  xxxii. 


HERSTMONCEUX  AND  BEXHILL       325 

Cathedral :  the  part  in  front  of  the  portico  has 
been  removed,  and  a  fragment  is  preserved  at  the 
entrance  to  Lewes  Castle.  It  was  not,  however, 
for  about  a  century  that  the  industry  finally  came 
to  an  end,  the  last  furnace  having  gone  out  at 
Ashburnham,  the  next  parish  to  Ninfield,  early  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  The  so-called  hammer- 
ponds,  where  the  smelting  and  working  went  on, 
the  simple  machinery  set  in  motion  by  water- 
power,  are  still  to  be  seen  among  the  woods  of  the 
iron  district.  The  magnificent  Elizabethan  and 
Jacobean  mansions  of  the  owners  are  frequently 
quite  close  to  the  ponds,  though  available  land 
was  by  no  means  restricted — a  fact  which  shows 
that  the  near  presence  of  the  workings  was  not 
held  to  be  a  nuisance  or  even  in  the  least 
inconvenient. 

Only  about  three  miles  from  Ninfield  is  Bexhill, 
and  over  the  low  hills  to  the  west  of  the  road  that 
slope  down  to  Pevensey  Levels,  spreads  the  very 
scattered  viliagfe  of  Hooe,  whose  church  has  a 
small  Early  English  chapel  north  of  the  chancel, 
square-headed  windows  of  the  fourteenth  century 
and  a  diagonally  buttressed  Perpendicular  tower 
with  a  stair  extending  to  the  top.  Bexhill  is  now 
a  borough  whose  limits  comprise  a  wide  stretch 
of  country  including  rolling  grass-lands  called  the 
Downs  (though,  as  a  rule,  in  Sussex  the  word  has 
a  quite  different  significance)  and  the  modern 
village  of  Little  Common  whose  character  is 
indicated  by  its  name.  The  old  village  from  which 
the  place  has  grown  stands  inland  on  high  ground  ; 
the  manor  of  Bexelei,  as  it  is  called  in  Domesday, 
belonged  in  pre-Conquest  times  to  the  South  Saxon 
See. 

Elizabeth,    in    1561,    when    the    Bishopric    was 


326  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

vacant,  secured  the  place  by  exchange  (in  which 
we  may  be  sure  she  lost  nothing)  and  shortly 
afterwards  she  transferred  it  to  Thomas  Sackville, 
Baron  Buckhurst,  Knight  of  the  Garter,  a  famous 
Sussex  worthy  who  in  1591  became  Chancellor  of 
Oxford  University,  in  1599  Lord  Treasurer  of  Eng- 
land, and  in  1604  the  first  Earl  of  Dorset.  He 
wrote  the  Induction  for  the  Mirror  for  Magistrates 
in  which  an  old  woman  named  Sorrow  conducts 
him  through  Hades  as  believed  in  by  Virgil ;  he 
was  the  joint  author  with  Thomas  Norton  of  the 
first  English  tragedy,  called  Gorboduc,  which  was 
acted  in  the  Inner  Temple  Hall.  The  moral 
is  that  divided  rule  is  bad  for  the  rulers  and  the 
ruled, 

"  But  worst  of  all  for  this  our  native  land. 
Within  one  land  one  single  rule  is  best; 
Divided  reigns  do  make  divided  hearts  ; 
But  peace  preserves  the  country  and  the  prince." 

It  contains  a  passage  which  seems  to  anticipate 
Tennyson : — 

"So  like  a  shattered  column  lay  the  King, — 
Not  like  that  Arthur  who,  with  lance  in  rest, 
From  spur  to  plume  a  star  of  tournament, 
Shot  thro'  the  lists  at  Camelot,  and  charged 
Before  the  eyes  of  ladies  and  of  Kings." 

In  sending  him  a  copy  of  the  Faerie  Queen, 
Spenser  wrote — 

"  In  vain,  I  thinke,  right  honorable  lord, 

By  this  rude  rime  to  memorize  thy  name, 
Whose  learned  muse  hath  writ  her  owne  record 
In  golden  verse,  worthy  immortal  fame  ; 


HERSTMONCEUX  AND   BEXHILL       327 

Thou  much  more  fit  (were  leisure  to  the  same) 
Thy  gracious  soveraignes  praises  to  compile, 

And  her  Imperial  Majestic  to  frame 
In  loftie  numbers  and  heroic  style." 

Dying  suddenly  at  the  Council  Table  in  1608,  he 
was  laid  to  rest  in  the  Sackville  Chapel  of  Withy- 
ham  church,  in  Sussex.  Bexhill  belongs  to  the 
present  representative  of  the  family,  Earl  de  la 
Warr,  who  has  done  much  to  develop  the  rising 
watering  place.  The  old  manor-house  is  largely 


OLD  COFFIN   SLAB  AT   BEXHILL. 


modernised,  the  walnut-tree  in  the  middle  of  the 
village  is  reduced  to  an  ivy-grown  stump,  the 
church  has  an  overgrown  appearance  from  succes- 
sive enlargements.  It  contains  the  oldest  Christian 
monument  in  Sussex,  a  child's  coffin  slab  of 
strangely  irregular  form,  raised  in  the  centre,  with 
Celtic  interlacing  patterns,  two  serpents,  and  two 
battle-axe  crosses.  P.  M.  Johnston,  than  whom 
we  could  not  wish  for  a  better  authority,  says  it  is 
as  early  as  the  eighth  century,  and  of  a  northern 
stone  that  came  very  likely  from  Whitby.  The 


323  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

love  of  the  parents  of  that  child,  whosoever  they 
were,  has  given  to  a  remote  posterity  a  valued 
memorial  of  days  before  Charles  the  Great  received 
the  Imperial  Crown,  before  Alfred  the  Great  was 
born.  It  is  the  most  precious  piece  of  stone  in 
Sussex.  The  walls  of  the  west  part  of  the  nave 
have  herring-bone  work  and  are,  perhaps,  pre- 
Conquest,  they  are  pierced  by  Norman  arches,  two 
each  side,  the  round  pillars  have  crude  foliage  and 
ornate  scallop  caps.  The  lower  part  of  the  tower 
is  of  the  same  date,  and  it  seems  to  have  been 
built  over  the  roadway  of  which  part  may  still  be 
seen  to  the  north,  the  arches  for  the  traffic  still 
exist,  and  there  was  doubtless  merely  a  door  into 
the  church.  This  arrangement  was  common  in 
mediaeval  cities,  but  very  unusual  in  villages.  In 
the  Early  English  period  it  became  possible  to 
divert  the  road,  so  the  tower  was  opened  to  the 
church  and  a  plain  arch  took  the  place  of  the  door  ; 
at  or  about  the  same  time  a  third  bay  was  added 
to  the  nave  and  a  new  chancel  was  built,  destined 
after  some  six  or  seven  centuries  to  give  place  to 
the  present  chancel,  by  Butterfield,  with  paintings, 
of  which  pictures  may  be  seen  in  the  large  railway 
advertisements  of  Bexhill.  The  church  has  spread 
laterally  as  well  as  longitudinally,  and  the  roof  in 
the  new  north  aisle  to  which  antiquity  has  been 
given  by  a  treatment  with  lime  has  exactly  the 
appearance  of  fifteenth  century  work,  while  really 
but  three  years  old. 

Just  east  of  Bexhill,  at  the  mouth  of  the  little 
stream  called  Asten,  was  the  old  port  of  Bulvar- 
hythe,  once  a  non-corporate  member  of  the  Cinque 
Ports  dependent  on  Hastings.  A  local  legend 
gives  a  story  about  its  foundation  in  connection 
with  a  bull's  hide,  similar  to  that  told  long  ago 


HERSTMONCEUX  AND  BEXHILL      329 

about  the  building  of  Carthage,  obviously  an 
extremely  uncritical  effort  to  account  for  the 
name.  Most  of  it  is  now  under  the  sea,  but  there 
are  ruins  of  the  late  Norman  church.  Between 
the  two  places  rises  Galley  Hill,  with  low  sand- 
stone cliffs  where  there  is  a  golf-course  overlook- 
ing the  sea.  The  chief  feature  of  the  front  of 
Bexhill  itself  is  a  delightful  cycle  track  close  to 
the  waters  of  the  Channel.  At  low  tide  may  be 
explored  extensive  reefs  of  sea-worn  and  weed- 
covered  sandrock,  while  in  places  all  along  this 
shore  are  fossilised  remains  of  trees,  the  so-called 
submarine  forest  which  grew  when  the  land  was 
much  more  extensive  than  now.  A  fine  old  trunk 
of  oak  is  preserved  in  the  Alexandra  Park  at 
Hastings  ;  it  was  found  during  the  building  of  one 
of  the  piers.  About  1864  was  discovered  on  the 
beach  at  Bexhill  an  oak  boat  midway  between  the 
coracle  and  the  type  of  vessel  represented  in 
the  Bayeux  Tapestry.  The  keel  was  a  flat  2-inch 
board ;  planks  of  naturally  bending  boughs  were 
neatly  fastened  to  stem  and  stern-posts  by  means 
of  wooden  rivets. 

Where  the  stream  of  Asten  has  cut  a  deep  valley 
among  the  hills  of  the  Forest  Ridge,  a  mile  or  two 
inland  stands  Crowhurst,  famous  for  its  magnificent 
old  yew-tree,  perhaps  the  finest  in  Sussex,  which 
appears  as  the  chapter-heading  ;  its  branches  rest 
on  props  where  necessary,  an  iron  band  prevents  it 
from  splitting,  the  greatest  diameter  of  its  trunk 
is  about  thirteen  feet.  It  entirely  dwarfs  two  other 
large  yews  in  the  churchyard.  The  tower  is  rather 
late  Perpendicular  and  displays  the  Pelham  buckle 
as  corbel  to  the  dripstone  on  each  side  of  the  west 
door  and  also  in  the  tracery  of  the  window  above. 
There  are  diagonally  placed  buttresses,  square- 


330  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

headed  windows,  battlements,  and  south-east  stair ; 
the  tower  opens  by  a  tall  arch  with  semi-octagonal 
responds  to  an  entirely  modern  church,  dedicated 
like  that  at  Crowhurst,  in  Surrey,  which  is  also 
famous  for  its  yew,  to  England's  patron  saint. 
Gibbon's  identification  of  St.  George  the  Martyr 
with  a  fraudulent  army  contractor,  rival  of 
Athanasius  and  Arian  archbishop,  who,  however, 
died  rather  than  renounce  his  faith  in  351  A.D.,  is 
now  generally  discredited.  George  the  Tribune, 
said  to  have  been  burnt  alive  for  tearing  down  one 
of  Diocletian's  persecuting  edicts,  was  a  soldier 
and  the  hero  of  the  dragon  story ;  there  is  another 
otherwise  unknown  George  mentioned  in  the 
Chronicon  Paschale  (c.  630)  as  a  martyr,  and  we 
simply  have  to  take  our  choice.  At  any  rate  the 
spirit  of  St.  George  was  seen  fighting  for  the  Cru- 
sading army  in  1098,  at  the  Battle  of  Antioch  ;  a 
Council  at  Oxford  in  1222  made  his  day  a  lesser 
holiday  throughout  England,  and  Edward  III.  took 
him  as  the  patron  saint  of  the  realm  in  place  of 
his  own  namesake,  the  Confessor.  Many  mediaeval 
churches  are  dedicated  to  him,  particularly  the 
chapel  in  Windsor  Castle  and  the  parish  church 
at  Doncaster. 

Just  below  the  churchyard  are  the  exceedingly 
interesting  ruins  of  a  small  manor-house  dating 
from  about  1300.  The  hall,  40  feet  by  23  feet,  had 
a  beautiful  two-light  east  window  whose  shafts  out- 
side have  foliage  caps ;  beneath  it,  above  ground, 
was  a  vaulted  chamber  with  a  central  row  of 
pillars  and  little  lancets.  (There  are  some  rather 
puzzling  walls  at  its  west  end.)  Joining  by  a 
corner  south-east  is  an  entrance  porch,  vaulted 
with  delicate  little  corbels,  now  propped  up  with 
wood,  whose  moulded  inner  door  has  shafts ;  it 


HERSTMONCEUX  AND  BEXHILL      331 

must  have  led  to  some  passage  now  destroyed  on 
the  south  side  of  the  hall  crypt.  Above  is  a  small 
gabled  chamber,  approached  from  the  hall  by  a 
little  passage  supported  by  a  squinch  arch.  There 
are  not  very  many  domestic  buildings  on  a  small 
scale  of  so  early  a  date  that  still  display  their 
original  features. 


AMDEN  tells  us  that  "some  have  ridiculously 
derived  this  name  from  our  word  Haste, 
because  Matthew  Paris  tells  us  that 
1  William  the  Conqueror  run  up  a  wooden 
fort  at  Hastings  in  haste.'  It  seems  rather  to  have 
taken  its  new  name  from  Hastings,  a  Danish  pirate.' 
More  likely  it  was  from  the  clan  of  Hsestingan  or 
Hastings,  who  settled  the  port  and  colonised  the 
vicinity  in  the  fifth  century,  and  may  for  a  time 
have  been  independent  between  South  Saxony  and 
Jutish  Kent.  Even  in  1011  the  Saxon  Chronicle 
refers  to  Kent,  Sussex  and  Hastings  as  having 
been  harried  by  the  Danes.  Simeon  of  Durham, 
writing  from  older  materials  in  the  early  twelfth 
century,  tells  us  how  Offa  of  Mercia  afterwards 
subdued  the  district,  but  his  charter  granting  the 
ports  of  Pevensey  and  Hastings  to  the  great 
Continental  Abbey  of  St.  Denis  has  been  shown 


HASTINGS  333 

by    W.    H.    Stevenson     to     be    almost    certainly 
forged. 

There  is  some  reason  for  believing  the  original 
town  with  its  harbour  to  have  been  south  of  the 
present  one,  the  site  having  been  washed  away  by 
the  sea.  The  New  Burgh  mentioned  in  Domesday 
in  the  opinion  of  Professor  Montagu  Burrows 
(Cinque  Ports)  absorbed  and  succeeded  this  older 
town ;  it  was  granted  with  Winchelsea  and 
Rye  to  the  Abbey  of  Fecamp  by  the  Confessor,  for 
that  monarch,  always  extremely  Norman  in  his 
sympathies,  desired  by  every  means  in  his  power 
to  forge  links  of  connection  with  the  Duchy  that 
he  loved.  The  Bayeux  Tapestry  depicts  for  us 
the  invaders  under  the  orders  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  digging  and  getimbering  the  original 
castle  on  a  bluff  where  the  uplands  of  the  Forest 
Ridge  form  cliffs  fronting  the  Channel.  The  site 
of  this  defence  may  probably  have  been  the  highest 
land  within  the  limits  of  the  present  castle,*  the 
old  inner  court  enclosed  between  the  curtain  wall 
and  the  edge  of  the  cliff.  It  is  separated  by  what 
a  rough  plan  of  1781  correctly  describes  as  "an 
uncommon  deep  ditch  "  from  extensive  and  rather 
baffling  earthworks  (some  probably  pre-Roman) 
that  formed  an  outer  protection.  The  ruins  are  of 
two  main  periods — Norman  buildings  erected  at 
different  times  during  more  than  a  century  after 
the  Conquest,  and  repairs  made  shortly  after  the 
destruction  of  the  place  by  King  John  in  1216. 
The  fall  of  the  cliff  has  largely  reduced  the  area  of 
the  court,  and  the  site  of  the  great  square  keep 
tower,  erected  by  Henry  II.  about  1172,  has  almost 

*  A  very  full  history  of  it  has  been  written  by  Charles 
Dawson  in  two  volumes,  to  which  the  present  writer  is 
indebted.  His  account  of  the  church  is  particularly  good. 


334  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

entirely  gone  over  the  edge.  The  curtain  wall  west 
of  the  highest  ground  is  mostly  of  the  earlier,  that 
to  the  east  of  the  later  date.  Both  are  of  rubble, 
the  former  has  herring-bone  in  parts.  For  most  of 
its  extent  the  western  curtain  formed  the  north 
wall  of  the  Collegiate  Church  of  St.  Mary  in  the 
Castle,  founded  by  Count  Robert  of  Eu  for  a 
dean  and  prebendaries,  of  which  latter  there 
were  at  one  time  ten.  It  is  an  extremely 
interesting  specimen  of  ecclesiastical  and  military 
architecture  combined.  It  consists  of  western 
narthex,  its  front  flanked  by  two  great  towers,  one 
of  which  forms  a  bastion  to  the  curtain  and 
contains  a  postern-gate,  of  broad  nave  with  a 
cloister  along  the  south  side,  of  central  tower  with 
a  small  transept  chapel  south  and  a  large  turret 
with  stair  forming  another  bastion  north,  and  of 
quire  with  chapter-house  forming  a  projection 
outside  the  curtain  on  the  north.  Just  east  of  the 
chapter-house  were  guard-rooms  by  the  north  gate, 
which,  rebuilt  of  old  materials,  are  still  used  for 
their  original  purpose,  except  that  threepence 
instead  of  a  pass- word  is  now  asked  of  all  who 
would  enter.  Neither  quire  nor  narthex  have  the 
same  axis  as  the  nave,  the  former  bending  to  the 
south  and  the  latter  to  the  north.  The  chapter- 
heading  shows  the  stair  turret  on  the  north  and 
the  ruined  transept  chapel  on  the  south,  while 
between  them  is  the  western  tower  arch,  through 
which  appears  the  north  wall  of  the  nave  (coin- 
ciding with  the  curtain),  and  over  it  a  little  to  the 
left  the  north-west  tower  of  the  narthex.  The 
nave  had  its  west  part  divided  by  an  arch ;  there 
are  remains  of  a  mural  arcade  on  the  north,  it  is 
wide  enough  to  have  a  door  with  square  lintel  on 
each  side  of  the  quire  arch  The  stairway  winds 


HASTINGS  335 

round  a  newel  about  20  inches  in  diameter  and  is 
unusually  wide.  The  transept  chapel  still  retains 
its  deep  altar  recess  with  a  rough  round  arch,  a 
plain  door  opens  into  the  tower.  The  quire  (or 
west  tower)  arch  is  an  insertion  of  beautiful  Early 
English  character,  whose  corbels  and  capitals  to  the 
corner  shafts  have  carved  foliage;  it  may  belong  to 
the  rebuilding  after  1216,  but  its  details  would  seem 
to  indicate  a  slightly  earlier  date,  perhaps  about 
1180.  The  quire  has  no  other  detail  than  the  base 
of  a  shaft  in  the  sedilia,  of  Early  English  character. 
The  chapter-house,  and  probably  the  whole  church, 
was  vaulted. 

This  important  though  small  church,  forming  part 
of  the  defences  of  a  great  castle,  is  extremely 
valuable  from  its  unusual  character,  and  when 
complete  it  must  have  had  a  striking  effect.  From 
the  college  seal  it  appears  that  the  central  tower 
was  at  one  time  surmounted  by  a  spire.  A  good 
deal  of  the  ruins,  including  the  tower  arch,  have 
been  rebuilt  with  their  original  materials.  Just 
west  of  the  narthex  were  the  deanery  and  houses 
for  the  canons  ;  the  institution  had  a  chequered 
career,  it  was  at  one  time  ranked  as  a  Royal  Free 
Chapel;  Thomas  a  Becket  was  once  its  Dean, 
William  of  Wykeham  held  a  canonry,  but  it 
suffered  much  from  French  attacks  and  more  from 
neglect.  In  1330  a  petition  to  Edward  III.  from  its 
Dean  and  Chapter  complained  that  the  chapel  was 
in  decay,  its  ornaments  and  treasures  were  stolen, 
its  ministers  were  robbed  and  wounded  both  by 
night  and  day,  wild  beasts  defiled  its  burial-ground. 
By  Henry  VIII.  it  was  suppressed,  but  in  1828  the 
Earl  of  Chichester,  head  of  the  church-building 
family  of  Pelham,  rebuilt  it  below  the  castle  rock 
in  the  centre  of  Pelham  Crescent,  From  the 


336  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

castle  court  one  looks  down  on  the  extensive  roofs 
of  the  new  St.  Mary-sub-Castro  and  from  its  Ionic 
portico  one  looks  out  to  sea. 

The  curtain  wall  on  the  east  is  early  thirteenth- 
century  work ;  a  gateway  is  flanked  by  two  large 
round  turrets,  portcullis  groove  and  bar  opening 
still  remain,  a  mural  passage  leads  to  another 
round  tower,  whose  interior  chamber  is  straight- 
sided.  Only  the  lower  part  of  these  buildings 
remain. 

Cut  out  in  the  sandrock,  entered  from  the 
ruins  of  the  north  gate,  are  two  passages,  one 
extending  for  about  40  feet,  the  other  for 
considerably  less  than  half  that  distance ;  in  each 
case  a  descent  is  made  by  means  of  worn  steps, 
and  irregular  little  chambers  are  passed  through 
or  entered.  The  rounded  forms  of  the  roofs  seem 
to  indicate  a  Norman  date,  the  peculiar  plan  of 
the  excavation  is  to  be  accounted  for  by  the 
necessity  of  keeping  in  the  hard  and  compact 
part  of  the  rock ;  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
the  purpose  of  the  rock-hewn  chambers  was  to 
serve  as  dungeons  ;  in  one  of  them  are  rough 
little  fireplaces  round  the  sides  with  no  chimney, 
perhaps  to  suffocate  wretched  prisoners  by  burning 
charcoal. 

One  seems  to  look  into  two  different  ages  of  the 
world  from  the  Castle  hill.  To  the  east  in  a 
restricted  valley  are  the  crowded  roofs  and  narrow 
lanes  of  what  is  left  of  the  old  Cinque  Port,  fishing- 
boats  along  the  shore,  everything  redolent  of  the 
past ;  a  great  modern  watering  place  with  its  piers 
and  promenades  and  bandstand  and  motor-cars 
spreads  out  towards  the  west. 

The  Rape  of  Hastings  was  granted  by  the 
Conqueror  to  his  kinsman,  Robert,  Count  of  Eu, 


Hannah 


HASTINGS    OLD   TOWN. 


To  face  p.  336. 


HASTINGS  337 

on  the  eastern  frontier  of  Normandy,  and  to  him 
and  the  Abbot  of  Fecamp  was  assigned  the  special 
duty  of  keeping  open  communications  between 
William's  Duchy  and  Kingdom,  a  responsibility 
doubtless  shared  by  William  of  Warenne,  Braose, 
and  Roger  of  Montgomery  and  their  successors, 
who  each  possessed  lands  fairly  opposite  their 
Sussex  estates  in  Normandy.  The  family  of  Eu 
lost  Hastings  because  when  Henry  III.  insisted 
on  their  deciding  definitely  whether  they  wanted 
to  be  English  or  French  they  did  not  choose  to  be 
British.  After  owning  many  lords,  the  Rape 
eventually  passed  to  the  Pelhams  in  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth,  and  the  Castle  still  remains  in  their 
hands.  At  Hastings,  during  the  Lent  of  1095, 
long  waited  Rufus  for  suitable  weather  to  cross 
the  Channel  on  his  bootless  expedition  to  Nor- 
mandy, and  Anselm  wasted  a  good  deal  of  breath 
in  trying  to  shame  him  into  decorous  behaviour, 
getting  nothing  but  rudeness  in  return.  As  the 
Primate's  biographer,  Eadmer,  growls  "Young 
men  at  Court  grew  their  hair  like  girls,  and 
every  day  Anselm  saw  that  they  were  in  the 
habit  of  walking  with  their  hair  pranked,  mak- 
ing irreligious  gestures  and  walking  mincingly." 
When,  in  1147,  a  motley  crowd  of  Crusaders 
of  many  nations  captured  Lisbon  from  the  Moors, 
a  Hastings  man,  one  Gilbert,  was  selected  as  its 
first  bishop. 

Though  the  premier  Cinque  Port,  Hastings  had 
merely  bailiffs  till  the  Armada  year  (1588),  when 
Elizabeth  granted  a  charter  (enlarged  by  Charles  I.) 
for  a  Mayor  and  Twelve  Jurats,  called  Barons.  It 
seems  possible  enough  (as  M.  A.  Lower  suggested) 
that  the  right  of  the  Cinque  Port  burgesses  to  be 
called  Barons  was  originally  connected  with  the 

22 


338  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

well-known  old  Saxon  Doom  that  "  if  a  merchant 
thrived  so  that  he  fared  thrice  over  the  sea  by  his 
own  means,  then  was  he  of  thane-right  worthy." 
There  is  no  novelty  in  sending  successful  men 
of  business  into  the  House  of  Lords.  The  Cinque 
Ports  were  Hastings,  Sandwich,  Dover,  Romney, 
and  Hythe ;  two  additional  ones  whose  status 
seems  to  have  differed  chiefly  in  name  were  Win- 
chelsea  and  Rye  :  they  were  styled  the  two  ancient 
towns.  A  considerable  number  of  other  ports 
belonged  to  the  organisation  as  members  of  the 
confederate  towns,  and  these,  so  far  as  Sussex 
was  concerned,  were  Seaford  and  Pevensey,  cor- 
porate members  of  Hastings  and  Bulverhythe, 
Hydney,  Higham,  Northeye  and  the  Grange,  non- 
corporate members  of  the  same. 

In  truth,  the  institutions  of  the  Confederacy 
seem  to  have  originated  from  business  at  Yar- 
mouth, whither  vessels  from  all  the  ports  resorted 
for  purposes  of  fishing  and  selling  fish;  but  this 
was  a  tame  and  uninspiring  beginning,  so  a 
connection  was  claimed  with  the  venerable  or- 
ganisation associated  with  the  Roman  Count  of 
the  Saxon  Shore.  Nor  can  this  possibly  be  said 
to  have  been  merely  an  idle  conceit,  for  as  Shake- 
speare says,  "  there  is  nothing  either  good  or  bad, 
but  thinking  makes  it  so,"  and  for  centuries  men 
really  believed  that  such  historic  continuity  was 
a  fact.  Even  in  setting  forth  their  claim  to  per- 
form certain  duties  at  the  Coronation  of  Edward 
VII.,  the  Ports  drew  special  attention  to  the  fact 
"  that  the  area  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
said  Ports  and  Towns  ...  is  commensurate  with 
that  formerly  commanded  by  the  Count  of  the 
Saxon  Shore."  J.  H.  Round  believes  the  organisa- 
tion of  the  Ports  to  have  been  due  to  Continental 


HASTINGS  330 

influences,  the  Confederacy  closely  resembling  but 
with  local  differences  one  of  the  old  French 
Communes,  his  principal  argument  being  derived 
from  the  fact  that  Communal  House  Demolition 
which  existed  in  the  Ports,  but  not  elsewhere  in 
England,  was  common  on  the  Continent.  If  a 
person  elected  to  office  declined  it  with  thanks 
(or  without)  and  after  being  thrice  admonished 
still  persisted  in  his  refusal,  his  fellow-townsmen 
called  in  a  body  and  showed  their  opinion  of  his 
conduct  by  demolishing  his  house  to  the  last  stone. 
This  strenuous  method  of  ensuring  to  the  com- 
munity the  services  of  the  officials  it  wished  for 
was  established  at  Amiens,  and  in  many  other 
Continental  towns  the  same  punishment  was 
employed  to  deal  with  other  offences.  Very 
full  privileges  were  granted  by  the  charters  of 
numerous  kings,  it  was  the  traditional  claim  that 
the  first  was  a  general  charter  to  all  the  towns 
granted  by  the  Confessor.  One  of  the  most  valued 
of  the  numerous  ancient  franchises  of  the  Ports 
was  the  right  to  dry  and  mend  their  nets  on  the 
den,  and  to  land  their  fish  free  of  toll  on  the  strand 
at  Great  Yarmouth.  About  this  there  was  bitter 
feeling  when  the  East  Anglian  seaport  itself 
became  a  place  of  importance.  At  Brodhull  met 
the  Assembly  and  at  Shepway  the  Court  of  the 
Confederacy,  both  were  small  places  and  in  early 
days  the  proceedings  were  probably  in  the  open 
air.  In  later  times  the  "  Brodhull,"  or  Brotherhood, 
closely  associated  with  another  meeting  called  the 
Guestling,  virtually  superseded  the  Court  of  Shep- 
way and  became  fixed  at  Dover.*  Each  Port  had 

*  The  Court  of  Brotherhood  and  Guestling  still  meets  to 
discuss  whatever  may  concern  the  Cinque  Ports  to-day,  for 
instance  the  representative  Barons  at  the  Coronation. 


340  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

a  code   of   regulations   for   its   own  local  affairs 
called  its  Customal. 

Had  the  English  Kingdom  been  as  weak  as  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  the  Cinque  Ports  might  have 
had  a  career  somewhat  resembling  that  of  the 
Hanseatic  League,  possessing  as  at  one  time  they 
practically  did  the  only  effective  navy.  They 
showed  some  considerable  signs  of  independence. 
In  1293,  in  private  war,  they  defeated  the  French 
at  St.  Mahe,  and  the  battle  had  the  most  far- 
reaching  results,  largely  causing  the  Hundred 
Years'  War  and  the  long-continued  Scotch  alliance 
with  France.  When  remonstrated  with,  the  ports- 
men  appealed  "to  the  judgment  of  their  peers, 
earls,  and  barons,"  so  asserting  their  right  to  rank 
with  peers  of  the  realm.  In  1297,  at  Sluys,  they 
attacked  the  Yarmouth  vessels  under  the  very 
eyes  of  the  king.  But  the  Ports  were  close  to 
London  (while  the  Hanseatic  towns  were  far  from 
Rome),  the  Warden  was  the  king's  own  officer 
and,  though  they  supported  Simon  de  Montfort, 
relations  with  their  sovereign  were  usually  pretty 
close.  The  Cinque  Port  fleet  long  preserved  the 
throne  of  John  himself,  by  whose  presence  in  the 
opinion  of  his  contemporaries  hell  itself  was 
defiled.  The  right  of  the  barons  to  be  with  the 
king  when  he  went  forth  of  his  chamber  that  he 
might  be  crowned,  and  when  he  returned  from  his 
coronation,  and  to  hold  a  canopy  over  his  head,  had 
a  symbolical  meaning  that  was  once  very  real. 
Various  other  places  than  the  Cinque  Ports  now 
help  to  maintain  the  navy,  but  the  right  of  the 
barons  to  attend  the  king  at  his  coronation  has 
survived  till  to-day.  The  Court  of  Claims  for  the 
Coronation  of  Edward  VII.  held  that  "  if  it  is  His 
Majesty's  pleasure  to  have  a  canopy  then  the 


HASTINGS  341 

Barons  of  the  Cinque  Ports  are  entitled  to  bear  it," 
and  though  such  was  not  His  Majesty's  wish,  four- 
teen barons  received  the  standards  of  the  Three 
Kingdoms  from  their  duly  appointed  bearers  at 
the  entrance  of  the  quire. 

The  harbour  of  Hastings  was  once  in  the  Priory 
Valley  to  the  west  of  the  Castle  Hill,  the  Albert 
Memorial  Clock  Tower  stands  where  of  old  ships 
were  moored ;  it  was  scoured  by  the  River  Old 
Roar  and  protected  by  the  headland  of  White 
Rock.  When  so  much  shingle  had  accumulated  to 
the  west  of  this  obstruction  that  there  was  no 
room  for  more,  then  began  the  filling  up  of  the 
mouth  of  the  port,  while  to  make  matters  worse 
the  site  of  the  town  kept  wearing  away  and  whole 
parishes  went  under  the  waves.  The  gradual  ruin 
of  the  port  was  the  subject  of  bitter  complaint, 
but  nothing  whatever  could  be  done  to  prevent 
the  action  of  the  sea.  The  centre  of  English  sea 
power  was  being  shifted  by  purely  physical  causes 
to  the  harbours  of  the  west. 

In  1635  it  was  determined  to  employ  Dutch 
resourcefulness,  but  nothing  came  of  it,  though 
on  February  15th  it  was  reported  "that  Thomas 
Rainolds  had  accordingly  (by  God's  grace)  per- 
formed, brought  one  Henrich  Cranhalls,  a  Dutch 
ingener,  who  uppon  serious  survey  thereof  dooth 
give  his  opinion  and  judgement  that  a  very  good 
haven  maie  there  be  made,  and  hath  promised  to 
undertake  the  same,  and  to  attend  the  towne's 
suite  and  petition  in  that  behalfe  whenever  he 
shall  be  required."  De  Foe  says  in  1738:  "Its 
Harbour,  formerly  so  famous,  is  now  a  poor  Road 
for  small  Vessels,  having  being  ruined  by  the  Storms 
that  from  time  to  time  have  been  so  fatal  to  its 
neighbouring  Ports  of  Rye  and  Winchelsea." 


342  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

It  is  not  easy  from  its  present  rather  featureless 
coast-line,  harbourless  but  that  two  little  modern 
breakwaters  protect  the  fishing  fleet,  to  picture 
Hastings  as  a  great  port,  yet  in  a  very  true  sense 
this  place  may  claim  to  be  mother  of  the  navy 
that  now  patrols  the  salt  waters  of  the  world. 

In  the  sandrock  of  the  Castle  Hill,  entered  from 
just  above  the  old  town,  are  St.  Clement's  Caves, 
and  one  of  the  two  old  churches  is  likewise  called 
by  his  name.  The  Recognitions  tell  how  Clement 
of  Rome  was  banished  by  Trajan  to  the  Crimea 
(where  he  is  held  in  due  honour  by  the  Russian 
Church),  and  afterwards  he  was  thrown  into  the  sea 
by  the  enemies  of  Christ  tied  to  the  anchor  which 
has  become  his  well-known  symbol,  popular  in 
seaport  towns.  In  two  other  Cinque  Ports,  Sand- 
wich and  (Old)  Romney,  he  is  also  commemorated. 
The  caves  are  purely  natural  though  artificially 
enlarged  in  places ;  they  are  very  extensive,  the 
whole  area  of  cavern,  passage,  and  shapeless 
chamber  being  about  two  acres  and  a  half,  and 
only  in  one  place  (by  a  former  entrance)  is  there 
any  but  artificial  light.  The  air  of  mystery  and 
gloom  is  not  heightened  by  anything  like  stalactite 
formation,  but  there  are  a  few  sculptures  on  the 
sides,  of  which  one  may  be  mediaeval.  The  floor 
is  clean  loose  sand.  The  church  is  a  good  speci- 
men of  Perpendicular  work  ;  there  is  no  chancel 
arch,  but  centre  and  aisles  extend  for  seven  bays 
with  clustered  pillars ;  the  west  wall  is  not  at 
right  angles,  following  the  line  of  the  street ;  in 
the  south-west  corner  is  a  fine  tower  with  vaulting 
and  large  four-light  transomed  windows.  In  the 
south  wall  are  two  cannon-balls,  which  were 
probably  fired  by  meddlesome  French  who  wished 
to  restore  James  II.  in  1690. 


HASTINGS  343 

The  old  town  itself,  confined  in  its  valley,  with 
step  lanes  winding  among  and  sometimes  even 
under  the  houses,  does  something  to  recall  Whitby, 
but  is  less  picturesque.  The  fishing  community, 
in  whose  dialect  some  French  words  are  strangely 
incorporated,  with  its  brown-sailed  boats  and  tarry 
smells  does  perhaps  more  than  anything  else  about 
Hastings  to  sustain  its  character  of  an  old  Cinque 
Portv  In  All  Saints  Street  there  are  a  few  old  tim- 
bered houses  with  projecting  windows  or  upper 
floors,  but  on  the  whole  the  general  effect  is  more 
attractive  than  the  details.  The  Church  of  All 
Saints  is,  like  St.  Clement's,  Perpendicular  but 
later  in  the  style.  The  arcades  of  four  bays  have 
octagonal  pillars,  and  an  interesting  old  fresco  of 
the  Last  Judgment  surmounts  the  chancel  arch ; 
the  west  tower  is  vaulted  with  a  procession  of 
little  animals  round  the  bell-hole,  its  arch  has 
short  shafts  with  concave  sides  resting  on  corbels. 
Thus  it  is  painted  on  the  north  wall — 

"i.  A.  s. 

"This   is   a   belfry  that   is   free 
for  all   those   that   civil   be 
and   if  you   please  to   chime   or  ring 
it   is   a  very  pleasant   thing. 

there   is   no   musick  playd   or   sung 
like   unto   Bells   when    theyr   well   rung 
then  ring  your   bells   well   if  you   can 
silence   is   best,  for  every   man. 

But  if   you   ring   in   spur   or   hat 
sixpence   you  pay   be   sure   of  that 
and   if  a   bell   you  overthrow 
pray  pay  a  groat  before  you  go. 
1756." 


344  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

Beyond  the  old  town  is  East  Hill;  it  may  be 
climbed  on  foot  or  ascended  by  the  lift  which 
appears  in  both  the  photographs  opposite  p.  336. 
Toward  the  sea  is  a  steep  cliff ;  a  golf-course,  faint 
traces  of  a  pre-Roman  camp,  and  a  beautiful  view 
over  the  red  tiles  of  the  old  town  with  the  castle 
beyond  and  Beachy  Head  in  the  distance  are  its 
chief  attractions. 

In  1786,  according  to  a  writer  in  the  Gentleman  s 
Magazine,  the  town  was  computed  to  contain  near 
3,000  inhabitants,  with  no  dissenters  from  the 
Church  of  England  of  any  kind.  One  of  the 
treasures  of  the  Corporation  was  the  arms  of 
France  "carved  on  wood,  and  painted  in  proper 
colours,  with  embellishments  "  taken  from  a  gate 
of  Quebec  in  1759,  and  presented  to  Hastings  by 
General  Murray.  This  is  still  here  despite  the 
desire  of  the  Canadian  city  to  get  it  back. 

Theodore  Hook,  writing  in  1804,  has  a  good  word 
for  Hastings  :  "  One  circumstance,  above  all  others, 
must  render  Hastings  dear  to  those  who  have  a 
regard  to  morality.  Vice  has  not  yet  erected 
her  standard  here ;  the  numerous  tribes  of 
professional  gamblers,  unhappy  profligates  and 
fashionable  swindlers  find  employment  elsewhere. 
Innocent  recreational  delight,  card  assemblies, 
billiards,  riding,  walking,  reading,  fishing,  and 
other  modes  of  pastime  banish  care  from  the  mind, 
whilst  the  salubrity  of  the  atmosphere  impels 
disease  from  the  body."  Ten  years  later  wrote 
Byron  from  Hastings:  "I  have  been  renewing  my 
acquaintance  with  my  old  friend  Ocean,  and  I  find 
his  bosom  as  pleasant  a  pillow  for  one's  head  in  the 
morning  as  his  daughters  of  Paphos  could  be  in  the 
twilight.  I  have  been  swimming  and  eating  turbot 
and  smuggling  neat  brandies  and  silk-handker- 


HASTINGS  345 

chiefs,  and  listening  to  my  friend  Hodgson's 
raptures  about  a  pretty  wife-elect  of  his,  and 
walking  on  cliffs  and  tumbling  down  hills,  and 
making  the  most  of  the  dolce  far  niente  of  the 
last  fortnight." 

Charles  Lamb  (Essays  of  Elia)  is  distinctly  rude 
to  the  Sussex  watering  places,  "  dull  at  Worthing 
one  summer,  duller  at  Brighton  another,  and 
dullest  at  Eastbourne  a  third  "  he  proceeded  to  do 
"  dreary  penance  "  at  Hastings.  "  It  is  a  place  of 
fugitive  resort,  an  heterogeneous  assemblage  of 
seamews  and  stockbrokers,  Amphitrites  of  the 
town,  and  misses  that  coquet  with  the  ocean.  If  it 
were  what  it  was  in  its  primitive  shape  it  were 
something.  I  could  abide  to  dwell  with  Mescheck ; 
to  assort  with  fisher  swains  and  smugglers.  I  like 
a  smuggler.  He  is  the  only  honest  thief." 

To  pass  by  Pelham  Crescent  from  the  old  Cinque 
Port  to  the  modern  watering  place  gives  something 
of  the  same  impression  as  when  one  walks  from 
the  native  city  to  the  European  settlement  in  some 
Asiatic  port.  The  whole  atmosphere  seems  to 
change.  There  are  fine  parks  and  squares  and 
wide  streets  and  modern  Gothic  churches  (one  of 
which  commemorates  the  old  Augustinian  priory 
of  the  Trinity)  and  beautiful  houses  and  gardens, 
but  all  these  add  rather  to  the  amenity  than  to  the 
interest  of  life.  There  is  little  to  be  said  about 
them  unless  in  local  guides.  Proceeding  westward 
one  soon  glides  imperceptibly  into  St.  Leonards, 
originally  a  chapelry  of  Hollington. 

St.  Leonards  on  Sea  takes  its  name  from  a  sixth- 
century  French  hermit  whose  godfather  was  King 
Clovis  himself,  and  who,  taking  up  his  abode  near 
Limoges  in  the  heart  of  a  forest,  instituted  a 
religious  house  and  devoted  himself  particularly  to 


346  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

the  ransoming  of  captives.  He,  or  more  correctly 
his  reputation,  was  brought  to  England  by  the 
Normans,  and  he  became  very  popular  in  Sussex, 
a  great  part  of  the  wooded  district  of  the  Forest 
Ridge,  as  well  as  seven  or  eight  churches,  being 
called  by  his  name.  In  the  forest  called  after  him 
St.  Leonard  slew  one  of  the  fairly  numerous 
dragons  of  Sussex,  and  lilies  of  the  valley  grow 
where  the  titanic  contest  raged.  As  a  reward  the 
Saint  secured  that 

"The  adders  never  sting 
nor  the  nightingales  sing." 

The  former  circumstance  has  doubtless  saved  many 
lives,  like  the  pins  that  were  not  swallowed ;  the 
precise  advantage  of  the  latter  is  more  difficult  to 
understand,  though  a  gentleman  from  Hampshire 
who  was  staying  at  a  country  house  about  eight 
miles  from  the  forest  came  down  very  late  one 
morning  with  the  complaint  that  the  nightingales 
really  did  make  such  a  confounded  noise  that  he 
hadn't  been  able  to  sleep. 

At  St.  Leonards  for  a  time  lived  Thomas 
Campbell,  and  here  about  1830  he  wrote  his 
Address  to  the  Sea — 

"Hail  to  thy  face  and  odours,  glorious  Sea! 
'Twere  thanklessness  in  me  to  bless  thee  not, 
Great  beauteous  Being !  in  whose  breath  and  smile 
My  heart  beats  calmer,  and  my  very  mind 
Inhales  salubrious  thoughts.     How  welcorner 
Thy  murmurs  than  the  murmurs  of  the  world! 
Though  like  the  world  thou  fluctuatest,  thy  din 
To  me  is  peace,  thy  restlessness  repose. 
Ev'n  gladly  I  exchange  yon  spring-green  lanes, 
With  all  the  darling  field-flowers  in  their  prime, 
And  gardens  haunted  by  the  nightingale's 


HASTINGS  347 

Long  trills  and  gushing  ecstasies  of  song, 

For  these  wild  headlands  and  the  sea-mew's  clang. 

With  these  beneath  my  windows,  pleasant  Sea ! 

I  long  not  to  o'erlook  Earth's  fairest  glades 

And  green  savannahs  :  Earth  has  not  a  plain 

So  boundless  or  so  beautiful  as  thine. 

The  eagle's  vision  cannot  take  it  in  : 

The  lightning's  wing,  too  weak  to  sweep  its  space, 

Sinks  half-way  o'er  it  like  a  wearied  bird. 

It  is  the  mirror  of  the  stars,  where  all 

Their  hosts  within  the  concave  firmament, 

Gay  marching  to  the  music  of  the  spheres, 

Can  see  themselves  at  once.     Nor  on  the  stage 

Of  rural  landscape  are  there  lights  and  shades 

Of  more  harmonious  dance  and  play  than  thine. 

How  vividly  this  moment  brightens  forth, 

Between  grey  parallel  and  leaden  breaths, 

A  belt  of  hues  that  stripes  thee  many  a  league, 

Flush'd  like  the  rainbow,   or  the  ring-dove's  neck, 

And  giving  to  the  glancing  sea-bird's  wing 

The  semblance  of  a  meteor !     Mighty  Sea  ! 

Camelon-like  thou  changest,  but  there's  love 

In  all  thy  change." 

The  stock  walk  from  Hastings  is  to  the  old 
church  in  the  wood  at  Hollington.  Nearly  every 
stone  of  the  building  is  modern,  except  for  a  fern- 
grown  buttress  and  a  couple  of  Perpendicular 
windows,  while  the  marble  gravestones  of  the 
wealthy  spread  around  and  abolish  the  charm  that 
is  attached  to  the  old  churchyard  of  the  poorest 
village.  W.  E.  A.  Axoii  (Bygone  Sussex)  tells  us 
that  the  place  inspired  the  following  verses,  but 
the  name  of  the  poet  is  not  told — 

"  I  see  a  little  church  with  low-set  spire, 
Encircled  by  a  grove  of  ancient  trees — 
With  branches  rhythmic  to  the  passing  breeze  ; 
And  now  I  hear  from  out  the  village  choir, 


348  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

The  song  of  praise  that  to  the  heavens  aspire, 

And  mingled  with  these  formal  litanies 

The  far-off  murmur  of  the  distant  seas 

And  the  sweet  scent  of  wild  rose  and  of  briar." 

The  Battle  of  Hastings  was  fought  on  a  ridge 
about  five  miles  away,  the  road  thither  traverses 
sandrock  country,  undulating  and  well  wooded. 
The  origin  of  the  word  that  Freeman  rather 
pedantically  wished,  on  the  authority  of  Orderic, 
a  monk  who  lived  about  1075  to  1143,  to  substitute 
for  the  time-honoured  name  of  the  Battle  of 
Hastings  is  thus  explained  by  Camden :  "  In  this 
town  is  a  place  called  by  a  French  name  from  the 
blood  shed  there  Sangue  Lac  (Senlac),  which  from 
the  nature  of  the  soil  looks  red  after  a  shower, 
whence  William  of  Newburgh,  without  any 
authority,  writes :  *  The  place  where  was  the 
greatest  slaughter  of  the  English  fighting  for 
their  country  after  a  little  shower  sweats  as  it 
were  fresh  blood,  as  if  to  testify  openly  and  by 
demonstration  of  fact  that  the  voice  of  so  much 
Christian  blood  yet  cries  out  of  the  earth  to  the 
Lord.' "  The  real  reason  for  the  reddish  tinge  to 
so  much  of  the  water  in  this  district  is  the  presence 
of  iron. 

As  to  whether  the  English  defended  themselves 
on  that  hill  by  means  of  a  palisade  or  only  by  a 
wall  of  their  shields  or  by  both  there  has  been 
fighting  on  paper  between  J.  H.  Round  and  Professor 
Freeman's  supporters  as  fierce  as  ever  on  the  land : 
the  question  indeed  has  been  argued  more  as  if 
some  present-day  matter  of  religion  or  politics 
were  at  stake  than  merely  the  mode  of  combat  in 
a  battle  long  ago.  On  the  whole  the  single  wall  of 
shields  so  valiantly  defended  by  Mr.  Round  un- 
doubtedly holds  the  day.  The  battle  scenes  in  the 


HASTINGS  349 

Bayeux  Tapestry,  where  horses  and  men  fall  up  and 
down  and  round  together,  are  exceedingly  spirited 
and  striking. 

Lord  Thurlow's  sonnet  about  the  battle,  written 
early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  seems  singularly 
lacking  in  local  colour — 

"O  moon,   that  shinest  on  this  heathy  wild, 
And  light'st  the  hill  of  Hastings  with  thy  ray, 
How  am  I  with  thy  sad  delight  beguiled, 
How  hold  with  fond  imagination  play  ! 

By  thy  broad  taper  I  call  up  the  time 
When  Harold  on  the  bleeding  verdure  lay, 
Though  great  in  glory,  over-stained  with  crime, 
And  fallen  by  his  fate  from  kingly  sway! 

On  bleeding  knights,   and  on  war-broken  arms, 
Torn  banners,  and  the  dying  steed  you  shone, 
When  this  fair  England  and  her  peerless  charms, 
And  all  but  honour,  to  the  foe  were  gone  ! 

Here  died  the  king,  whom  his  brave  subjects  chose 
But  dying  lay  amid  his  Norman  foes." 

Robert  of  Gloucester  tells  us — 

"King  William  bithought  hym  alsoe  of  that 

Folke  that  was  forlorne 
And  slayn  also  thoru5  hym 

In  the  bataile  biforne. 
And  ther  as  the  bataile  was 

An  Abbey  he  lete  rere 
Of  Seint  Martin  for  the  soules 

That  there  slayn  were." 

The  story  of  its  foundation  shows  forth  in  its 
proposed  inhabitants  little  of  the  Benedictine 
spirit  that  might  reasonably  have  been  hoped  for. 
The  monks  were  of  opinion  that  the  hill  where 


350  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

Harold's  banner  had  flown  was  no  suitable  site  for 
their  residence,  and  in  fact  they  began  to  build  on 
lower  ground.  But  the  Conqueror  insisted  ;  there 
where  England  had  been  lost  and  won,  where  fell 
the  last  of  her  Saxon  kings,  should  rise  the  high 
altar  of  the  church,  on  that  spot  and  nowhere 
else.  To  the  wearers  of  the  cowl  who  grumbled 
about  the  dreary  situation  and  the  want  of  water 
he  promised,  "If  God  spare  my  life  I  will  so  amply 
provide  for  this  place  that  wine  shall  be  more 
abundant  here  than  water  in  any  other  great 
Abbey."  So  the  good  monks  had  compensations, 
though  they  did  have  to  build  in  a  less  delightful 
spot  than  they  could  have  wished.  Nor  did  they 
markedly  abuse  the  good  things  so  bountifully 
provided  ;  at  any  rate,  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  the 
Welsh  chronicler,  records  how  John  of  Dover, 
Abbot  of  Battle,  1200-1213,  once  visited  the  Cis- 
tercian house  of  Robertsbridge,  and  in  spite  of 
efforts  to  keep  him  out  of  it  he  was  guided  by  his 
nose  into  the  refectory.  Steaming  joints  were  on 
the  dining-tables  of  those  who  professed  to  be 
rigid  vegetarians.  Scandalised  by  the  laxity  of 
what  was  supposed  to  be  a  stricter  form  of  the 
Benedictine  Rule,  he  asked  with  a  sneer  of  what 
saints  he  perceived  the  relics,  and  unceremoniously 
left  the  place.  Things  were  presumably  much 
better  at  Battle. 

Everything  that  was  possible  for  the  benefit  of 
his  Abbey  William  the  Conqueror  did  :  property 
was  given  with  a  lavish  hand,  the  house  was  made 
"  free  and  quit  of  every  custom  of  earthly  service," 
"  of  all  subjection  to  Bishops,  especially  the  Bishop 
of  Chichester."  Within  the  Leuga  or  Lowey,  com- 
prising a  radius  of  three  miles  all  around,  there 
was  the  fullest  right  of  sanctuary,  neither  royal 


HASTINGS  351 

nor  ecclesiastical  officers  could  interfere  with  the 
arrangements  of  the  abbot,  who  also  had  the 
exceptional  privilege  of  doing  a  little  hunting  on 
his  own  account  when  passing  through  the  king's 
forests,  and  of  pardoning  any  thief  or  robber, 
should  he  chance  to  meet  one  on  the  way  to 
execution.  Whether  the  "robbers  or  murderers 
or  other  criminals  "  who  were  not  to  be  interfered 
with  if  they  took  refuge  at  the  place  were  fit  or 
desirable  company  for  the  monks,  or  whether  it 
was  seemly  that  the  market  granted  by  Henry  I.'s 
charter  should  be  held  at  the  very  gate  of  the 
abbey  every  Sunday  we  will  not  stop  to  inquire.* 

Though  the  abbot  was  mitred  and  sat  in  Parlia- 
ment, and  the  abbey  had  every  possible  privilege, 
it  never  ranked  in  the  first  class  so  far  as  buildings 
were  concerned.  The  church  was  a  little  over 
300  feet  long,  or  about  three-fifths  the  length  of 
St.  Albans,  and  the  other  buildings  were  about  in 
proportion.  The  ruins  however  appear  to  the  very 
best  advantage  from  being  in  a  beautiful  garden, 
and  the  crumbling  walls  are  splendidly  set  off  by 
smooth  lawns  and  bright  flower-beds,  by  borders 
of  box  and  tall  hedges  of  yew,  while  rhododen- 
drons and  azaleas  of  many  kinds  supply  blazes  of 
colour,  and  cedars,  palms,  and  camelias  give  some- 
thing of  a  foreign  air. 

An  account  of  the  building  is  given  in  the  Battle 
Abbey  Chronicle,  and  it  is  interesting  as  illustrat- 
ing the  difficulties  that  were  encountered  in  such 

*  Nor  whether  any  other  country  would  allow  such  a 
national  monument  to  be  in  private  hands,  opened  under 
restrictions  to  the  public  only  one  day  in  the  week.  No  one 
can  reasonably  blame  owner  or  tenant  for  not  wanting  the 
whole  world  careering  about  a  private  garden,  but  things  ar« 
very  unsatisfactory. 


352  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

works  even  when  so  determined  a  man  as  the 
Conqueror  was  in  command.  Naturally  it  is 
expressed  with  delicacy  and  diplomacy,  but  we 
read  between  the  lines  that  what  the  Americans 
call  graft  was  extensively  going  on.  The  monks 
complaining  of  the  absence  of  building  stone  on  the 
spot,  "  the  King,  undertaking  to  defray  all  expenses 
out  of  his  own  treasury,  sent  ships  to  the  town 
of  Caen  to  bring  over  abundance  of  that  material 
for  the  work.  And  when,  in  compliance  with  the 
royal  order,  they  had  imported  some  part  of  the 
stone  from  Normandy,  in  the  meantime,  as  is  said, 
it  was  revealed  to  a  certain  religious  matron,  that 
upon  digging  in  the  place  indicated  to  her  in  a 
vision,  they  would  find  plenty  of  stone  for  this 
purpose.  They  commenced  a  search  accordingly, 
and  at  no  great  distance  from  the  boundary 
which  had  been  marked  out  for  the  Abbey,  found 
such  an  ample  supply  that  it  plainly  appeared 
that  a  concealed  treasure  of  it  had  been  divinely 
laid  in  that  very  place  from  eternity,  for  the 
building  there  to  be  erected. 

"Thus  at  length  were  laid  the  foundations  of 
this  most  excellent  work,  as  it  was  then  con- 
sidered ;  and  in  accordance  with  the  King's  decree, 
they  wisely  erected  the  high  altar  upon  the  precise 
spot  where  the  ensign  of  King  Harold,  which  they 
call  the  Standard,  was  observed  to  fall.  But 
although  skilful  men,  influenced  by  no  love  of 
filthy  lucre,  had  the  superintendence  of  the  work, 
the  building  went  on  but  slowly,  on  account  of 
some  extortioners,  who  sought  their  own  things 
rather  than  those  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  laboured 
more  in  appearance  than  in  truth.  Meantime 
also  the  brethren  built  within  the  intended  circuit 
of  the  monastery  mean  dwellings  of  little  cost,  for 


HASTINGS  353 

their  own  residence.  And  thus  by  an  evil  example 
at  first,  things  were  put  off  from  day  to  day,  and 
the  royal  treasures  allotted  for  the  furtherance  of 
the  undertaking  were  improperly  spent,  and  many 
things  conferred  upon  the  place  by  the  King's 
devout  liberality  carelessly  squandered." 

A  fragment  of  the  south-west  corner  of  the 
church  shows  original  Norman  work  with  a  shaft 
both  within  and  without;  in  what  is  left  of  the 
south  aisle  wall  is  a  sepulchral  recess  with  short 
stone  coffin,  supposed  to  be  that  of  the  excellent 
Abbot  Odo  (1175-1200),  who  was  brought  much 
against  his  will  from  Canterbury,  and  was  in  office 
at  the  time  the  Battle  Abbey  Chronicle  comes  to  an 
end.  A  modern  French  monument  marks  the  site 
of  the  high  altar,  beyond  is  the  crypt  under  the 
east  end,  a  work  of  Early  English  character ;  there 
are  three  little  chapels,  each  with  a  three-sided 
apse,  the  central  one  retains  a  stone  altar,  the 
southern  a  trefoiled  piscina.  Between  were  arches 
arid  the  base  of  a  single  round  pillar  remains  each 
side,  stairs  led  down  into  the  outer  corners  from 
the  quire  aisles. 

South  of  the  nave  was  the  cloister  garth  ;  there 
are  traces  of  Norman  walling  and  along  the  west 
side  are  nine  bays  with  four-light  blind  windows 
of  Decorated  and  Perpendicular  character.  The 
Chronicle  speaks  of  Abbot  Walter  de  Lucy  (1139- 
1171)  rebuilding  the  cloister  of  marble  slabs  and 
columns,  of  smooth  and  polished  workmanship, 
but  of  this  there  seem  to  be  no  remains. 

There  are  practically  no  traces  of  the  chapter- 
house, &c.,  which  must  have  been  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  cloister,  but  extending  southward  from 
its  site  is  the  most  striking  part  of  the  ruins,  the 
monks'  dormitory,  which  on  account  of  the  falling 

23 


354  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

away  of  the  ground  had  large  vaulted  buildings 
below.  It  is  a  heavily  buttressed  Early  English 
building  on  Norman  foundations,  its  lancets  have 
shafts  and  window-seats,  they  are  transomed  for 
shutters  beneath  the  glass  ;  in  the  south  end  there 
are  two  of  them,  with  smaller  ones  in  the  gable 
above.  The  timber  roof  is  entirely  gone,  the  floor 
is  the  smoothest  turf,  marked  out  for  a  tennis 
court.  There  are  stair  turrets  in  the  east  wall 
and  in  the  south-east  corner.  The  latter  appears 
in  the  photograph,  which  shows  the  south  end 
taken  from  just  outside  the  precinct  wall,  of 
which  it  formed  a  part.  The  lowest  and  most 
southerly  of  the  chambers  below  is  very  lofty  and 
large,  vaulted  in  four  bays  with  a  single  row 
of  large  round  pillars,  shafts  against  the  walls, 
moulded  capitals.  A  big  fireplace  in  the  south 
wall  has  thin  tiles  in  the  back.  Just  north  is  the 
smallest  of  the  three  chambers,  vaulted  in  two 
bays  with  three  aisles  ;  the  pillars  are  of  Purbeck 
marble  and  round,  the  caps  are  set  with  lead  and 
one  has  rough  palm-leaves.  Next  to  this  is  a 
vaulted  slype  which  seems  to  be  largely  Norman. 
The  third  chamber,  the  lowest  in  height  but 
highest  in  floor  level,  has  five  bays,  and  is  vaulted 
with  two  rows  of  round  pillars. 

The  buildings  west  of  the  cloister,  which  con- 
tained the  abbot's  own  apartments,  including  a 
hall  58  feet  by  31  feet,  are  built  up  into  the  present 
house,  which  is  of  various  dates  and  largely  altered 
in  character.  The  pipes  on  the  north  side  bear  the 
date  1711  and  the  Montague  arms. 

South  of  the  cloister  was  the  refectory,  and  of 
this  remain  the  west  end  against  the  house  with 
cinquefoiled  arcading  and  part  of  an  arch  that 
opened  to  an  oriel.  Along  the  hill-side  farther  south 


Hannah. 


BATTLE   ABBEY    DORMITORY. 


Hannah. 


GREYFRIARS,    WINCHELSEA. 


To  face  p.  3*4. 


HASTINGS  355 

is  a  terrace  over  the  vaults  of  the  guesten  house, 
and  from  it  is  a  good  view  over  part  of  the  battle- 
field ;  at  the  corners  of  the  west  end  stand  up  alone 
two  sixteenth-century  octagonal  turrets,  frag- 
ments of  the  house  of  the  Montagues.  This  coin- 
cides with  the  precinct  wall,  which  on  the  north 
was  detached  except  where  it  joins  the  gateway ; 
it  enclosed  a  rather  irregular  area,  roughly  1,000 
feet  by  500  feet,  and  most  of  it  remains,  forming 
a  sustaining  wall  to  the  garden.  It  is  largely 
Norman  with  pilasters,  but  has  been  patched  at 
different  times  and  heavily  buttressed.  The  gate- 
way is  partly  Norman  as  to  the  walling,  and  has 
windows  and  small  arches  in  that  style.  The  actual 
gate  is  a  beautiful  fourteenth-century  example, 
with  large  and  small  arches  and  clustered  pillar 
and  shafts  to  sustain  the  vaulting,  which  has 
moulded  ribs  and  bosses.  There  is  remarkable 
arcading  with  straight-sided  intersecting  arches  ; 
the  battlements  are  panelled,  and  at  each  corner  is 
a  large  octagonal  turret.  This  gate  was  built,  and 
the  precinct  wall  was  strengthened,  with  a  walk 
along  the  top  in  places,  when  Edward  III.  gave 
licence  to  fortify.  A  military  spirit  was  animating 
the  monks,  and  during  the  same  century  the  Abbot 
of  Battle  and  the  Prior  of  Lewes  took  an  active 
and  patriotic  part  in  repelling  French  invasions. 

The  eastern  section  of  the  gateway  building, 
which  has  sixteenth-century  windows,  at  one  time 
formed  a  court  house,  and  it  has  never  been  re- 
roofed,  it  appears,  since  1794  when,  as  the  Gentle- 
man's Magazine  records,  the  roof  was  by  the 
violence  of  the  wind  and  rain  driven  in,  and  the 
inhabitants  of  the  town  thrown  into  a  dreadful 
confusion. 

The  abbey  was  granted  at  the  Dissolution  to  Sir 


356  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

Anthony  Browne,  who  had  been  proxy  for  Henry 
VIII.  at  his  marriage  with  Anne  of  Cleves.  He 
has  a  fine  monument  of  marble  in  Battle  Church, 
where  his  effigy  and  that  of  Alice  his  wife  lie  on 
an  altar  tomb  with  classic  details,  shells  filling  up 
the  round  arches  of  its  arcading.  (His  son  became 
Viscount  Montague.)  As  he  was  entertaining  his 
friends  in  the  hall  of  the  secularised  abbey,  a 
monk  suddenly  appeared  and  pronounced  the 
famous  curse  that  by  fire  and  water  his  line  should 
come  to  an  end  and  perish  out  of  the  land,  a 
prophecy  that  was  said  to  have  been  fearfully 
fulfilled  when  another  seat  of  the  family  at  Cow- 
dray  was  burnt,  and  the  eighth  Viscount  Montague 
was  drowned  at  the  Falls  of  Schaffhausen  on  the 
Rhine  in  1793.*  Battle  Abbey  was  sold  to  the 
Webster  family  in  1719. 

The  modern  visitor  will  probably  be  more 
amused  than  instructed  by  the  information  fur- 
nished by  the  guides  :  the  reason  for  the  sup- 
pression of  the  abbey  was  the  huge  expense  of 
the  king's  eight  wives.  The  best  authorities  in 
England  are  of  opinion  that  an  arch  in  the 
refectory  had  when  perfect  a  span  of  a  hundred 
and  ten  feet.  Professor  Freeman  himself  told  a 
guide  that  a  boss  in  the  vaulting  of  the  gateway 
represents  William  the  Conqueror,  who  civilised 
England  !  Bitingly  sarcastic  indeed  he  must  have 

*  This  of  course  may  be  so  or  it  may  not,  but  Sussex  gives 
no  support  to  the  theory  as  to  the  dying  oat  of  families  that 
owned  monastic  land.  Most  of  our  old  families  that  never 
owned  an  acre  of  such  have  passed  away,  while  our  chief 
land-owner  possesses  many  a  field  that  once  had  monkish 
owners  and  the  sites  of  some  half-dozen  religious  houses,  while 
his  family  has  endured  for  centuries,  and  shows  every  sign  of 
lasting  for  many  more. 


HASTINGS  357 

been    if    Freeman    really    said    anything    of    the 
kind. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  town  that  here  as  in 
other  places  grew  up  round  the  abbey  were  for  a 
time  permitted  to  pray  in  the  great  church  of  St. 
Martin  itself.  This,  however,  was  soon  found  to 
be  inconvenient,  and  the  parish  church  of  St.  Mary 
was  built  close  to  the  other,  but  separated  by  the 
precinct  wall.  A  chaplain  of  the  abbot  there 
officiated ;  and  although  there  was  never  any 
chapter,  he  became  known  after  a  time  as  the 
dean,  simply  it  appears  to  enhance  the  dignity  of 
the  abbey.  There  was  not  much  difficulty  in 
finding  a  parish  priest,  the  Chronicle  has  the 
following  account  of  the  way  in  which  things  were 
managed :  "  Upon  this,  other  applicants  likewise 
desisted  from  their  entreaties,  and  the  convent 
held  the  church  without  any  further  trouble,  as 
long  as  it  remained  without  an  abbot,  namely,  up 
to  the  arrival  of  Abbot  Odo,  appropriating  its 
revenues  to  the  lights  of  the  monastery,  and 
principally  to  wax  tapers,  to  be  burnt  continually 
before  the  high  altar,  and  the  host,  and  the 
relics  of  the  saints  there  deposited ;  for,  from  the 
first  foundation  of  the  Abbey  up  to  that  time, 
lamps  supplied  with  dirty  and  foetid  oil  had  been 
burnt  before  the  host. 

"  Now,  within  a  few  days  of  Abbot  Odo's  recep- 
tion at  Battle,  Richard,  archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
primate  of  all  England  and  legate  of  the  apostolic 
see,  wrote  to  inform  him  that  he  was  about  to 
visit  him  in  his  legatine  capacity.  The  abbot, 
therefore,  knowing  the  cupidity  of  the  archbishop's 
clerks,  and  fearing  that  he,  finding  the  parish  church 
vacant,  might,  at  their  earnest  importunities,  take 
it  out  of  his  hands,  determined  to  anticipate 


358  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

the  archbishop's  arrival.  He  therefore,  though 
somewhat  against  the  wishes  of  the  convent, 
granted  the  benefice  to  a  certain  kinsman  of  his 
own,  one  John,  chaplain  of  the  church  at  Hariet- 
sham,  upon  condition  however  that  he  should 
serve  the  Church  in  his  own  person." 

The  parish  church  is  of  Norman  foundation,  but 
the  greater  part  of  what  exists  dates  from  the  late 
twelfth  century,  the  nave  arcades  having  octagonal 
and  round  pillars  with  rude  palm-leaf  caps  and 
lancets  over  them  in  the  clearstory ;  the  chancel 
has  three  blind  arches  on  the  south  enclosing 
lancets  and  small  octagonal  turrets.  In  the  north 
aisle  wall  is  a  lancet  hagioscope  to  afford  a  view 
of  the  altar  from  some  chamber  outside  that  is 
now  destroyed.  The  west  tower,  south  porch, 
and  most  of  the  aisles  of  the  nave  and  chapels  of 
the  chancel  are  Perpendicular  work. 

Besides  the  Browne  monument,  there  are  brasses 
to  Sir  John  Lowe  (1426)  in  armour  with  feet  on 
lion,  to  some  former  deans,  and  to  one  whose 
career  is  set  forth  in  a  jingling  rime — 

"Thomas    Alfrage,    good    curteous    frend,    interred    lyeth 

heere, 
Who  so  in  active  life  did  passe,  as  none  was  found   his 

peere ; 
And  Elizabeth  did  take  to  wyfe,  one  Ambrose  Comfort's 

child, 
Who  with  hym  thirty-one  yeares  lyvid,  a  virtuous  spouse, 

and  mild, 

By  whom  a  sonne  and  daughter  eke,  behind  alyve  he  left, 
And  eare  he  fiftie  yeares  had  rune,  death  hym  of  lyfe 

bereft. 
On  newe  yeares  day,  of  Christe  his  birth,  which  was  just 

nighitie  nine, 
One  thousand  and  five  hundreth  eke,  loe  here  of  flesh  the 

fine. 


HASTINGS  359 

But  then  his  wofull  wife  of  God,  with  piteous  praiers  gann 

crave, 
That  her  own  corps   wth  husbands  hers,  might  joyne  in 

darkso  grave. 
And   that   her  soule,  his  soule   might  seeke,  amongst  ye 

saints  above, 

And  there  in  endless  blysse  enjoye  her  long  desired  love, 
The  which  our  gracious  God  did  graunt,  to  her  of  Marche 

ye  last, 
When  after  that  devorcement  sower,  one  yere  and  more 

was  past." 

Battle,  though  a  small  place,  has  much  of  the 
character  of  a  town,  with  two  regular  streets 
meeting  in  an  open  space  before  the  abbey  gate. 
It  contains  a  few  old  houses  ;  the  deanery  is  a 
picturesque  brick  building  with  stone  mullioned 
windows,  battlements,  tiled  roof,  and  Ionic  door- 
way. Suitably  enough  it  was  once  very  famous 
for  making  gunpowder,  which  De  Foe  thought 
perhaps  the  best  in  Europe.  In  1801  there  was  a 
terrific  explosion,  and  how  it  happened  as  there 
were  no  fires  in  the  stoves  at  the  time  no  one 
could  tell.  The  indignant  neighbours  who  came 
for  compensation  could  get  very  little  out  of  the 
owner  of  the  mills,  who  explained,  to  quote  Thomas 
Hood's  poem — 

"'If  I  do  have  a  blow,  well,  where's  the  oddity? 
I  merely  do  as  other  tradesmen  do, 

You  Sir — and  you — and  you  ! 
I'm  only  puffing  off  my  own  commodity.' " 


XIX.     Winchelfea 


01 J   TOM  Hall  | 

S  the  South  Downs  form  a  series  of  cliffs 
along  the  shore  from  Brighton  to  East- 
hourne,  so  the  hills  of  the  Forest  Kidge 
present  to  the  Channel  a  line  of  bluffs, 
of  which  Fairlight  Head  is  the  most  striking,  be- 
tween Hastings  and  Winchelsea.  The  Forest  Bidge, 
which  for  a  considerable  distance  forms  the  water- 
shed between  the  Channel  rivers  and  the  Thames, 
consists  of  dry  upland  country  covered  with  great 
stretches  of  bracken,  gorse,  and  heather,  or  wooded 
largely  with  fir  and  beech,  but  with  fine  oak-trees 
in  parts.  In  some  places  the  scenery  slightly 
recalls  Dartmoor,  and  the  district  comprises  the 
wildest  country  in  Sussex.  The  rocks  belong  to 
the  Lower  Cretaceous  period.  Of  several  little 
valleys  that  extend  down  from  the  higher  lands 
to  the  sea  between  the  cliffs  the  most  striking  is 
Fairlight  Glen.  At  the  bottom  trickles  a  little 
stream  over  rocks ;  the  sides  are  thickly  wooded 
and  there  are  large  oaks  among  the  trees,  which 
extend  to  within  a  few  yards  of  the  sea;  ferns, 

360 


WINCHELSEA  361 

moss,  ivy,  and  all  the  common  wild  flowers,  includ- 
ing a  large  patch  of  garlic,  carpet  the  space  under 
the  trees,  and  a  path  by  the  stream  leads  down  to 
the  rocky  shore.  A  short  distance  east,  half-way 
down  the  sloping  cliffs,  reached  by  a  different  path, 
is  the  Lovers'  Seat,  where  the  captain  of  a  revenue 
cutter  is  said  to  have  got  engaged  to  a  Kentish 
young  lady  with  a  fortune,  whose  parents,  it  need 
hardly  be  said,  wished  for  a  "  better  "  match.  From 
under  the  shelter  of  a  high  and  partly  overhanging 
rock,  the  sand  of  which  is  on  one  level  rich  in  iron, 
one  looks  down  a  slope  scrubbily  wooded  with  oak, 
hawthorn,  elder,  and  other  common  trees  and 
shrubs  to  the  waves  breaking  on  the  rocks  below. 
Seagulls  screeching  and  land  birds  twittering  is  a 
strange  combination  which  constitutes  the  chief 
charm  of  the  place.  Next  to  Beachy  Head  it  is  the 
most  striking  scenery  of  the  Sussex  coast,  but 
except  for  the  colour  of  the  rocks  it  seems  more 
like  a  bit  of  Devonshire  near  Dawlish  or  Torquay 
than  anything  truly  characteristic  of  the  county. 
It  inspired  a  poem  from  William  Wilson,  written 
after  he  had  emigrated  to  America,  of  which  the 
following  is  a  verse — 

"Hid  in  thy  white  bosom,  up,  up  out  of  sight 

(Like  a  mother  that  shelters  her  babe  at  her  breast), 
A  lovers'  retreat  doth  invite  to  repose, 

Surrounded  by  green  nooks  where  birds  love  to  nest. 
With  many  a  name  the  old  seat  is  carv'd  over, 

And  to  many  a  name  there's  some  legend,  I  ken  ; 
There  are  spots  when  once  seen  that  can  ne'er  be  forgot, 

Such  art  thou,  in  thy  solitude — sweet  Fairlight  Glen  ! " 

The  number  of  names  scribbled  or  cut  all  over 
the  place  is  (whatever  a  poet  may  think)  no  real 
addition  to  its  beauty.  In  a  New  York  hotel  the 


362  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

writer  once  saw  a  board  specially  provided  to  pre- 
vent people  having  to  scribble  over  the  white 
marble,  and  for  their  further  convenience  separate 
spaces  were  thoughtfully  provided  for  poetry, 
drawing,  and  prose.  Something  of  the  kind  would 
be  a  decided  advantage  for  the  autographs  of  the 
many  distinguished  people  who  visit  the  glen  and 
do  not  desire  to  leave  it  without  some  memento  of 
their  visit. 

High  up  on  a  ridge  farther  east  stands  Fairlight 
church,  from  which  a  magnificent  view  to  the 
northward  embraces  many  foldings  of  the  Weald, 
diversified  with  every  shade  of  green,  with  patches 
or  lines  of  cultivated  land,  and  a  red  roof  here  and 
there.  To  the  south  one  looks  straight  over  the 
shipping  of  the  Channel,  with  a  peep  of  the  flats 
by  Winchelsea  to  the  east.  The  church  itself  was 
rebuilt  in  1845,  but  the  glorious  situation  seems  to 
have  failed  to  inspire  the  architect,  and  one  of  the 
most  conspicuous  sanctuaries  in  the  county  is  hope- 
lessly commonplace,  though  fairly  good  Gothic  for 
its  period. 

On  the  lower  ground  to  the  north,  overlooked 
from  Fairlight,  are  the  villages  of  Guestling  and 
Westfield.  The  former  has  a  church  with  an 
interesting  Norman  tower  having  a  receding  upper 
story  with  shafted  double  windows  and  a  stair  in 
the  north-west  corner ;  the  western  quoins  of  the 
original  high  aisleless  nave  can  be  seen ;  the  tower 
opened  into  it  merely  by  a  door.  The  rest  is 
largely  rebuilt ;  the  nave  has  aisles  and  the  chancel 
has  chapels,  each  with  two  bays ;  there  are  arches, 
niches,  and  windows  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries.  Westfield  church  retains  a  Norman 
chancel  arch  having  shafts  with  little  volutes  to 
their  caps  on  the  side  towards  the  nave.  The 


WINCHELSEA  363 

chancel  retains  some  original  features,  but  has 
been  lengthened  during  the  Early  English  period. 
Plain  windows  in  the  heavily  buttressed  nave  and 
tower  belong  to  the  same  period  as  the  panelled 
and  nail-studded  south  door  with  a  wooden  lock, 
which  is  dated  1542. 

East  of  Fairlight  on  a  similar  but  smaller  ridge 
stands  Pett,  overlooking  the  levels ;  the  church  is 
modern  and  featureless  ;  even  the  font,  dated  1753, 
is  exiled  to  the  yard,  on  whose  grass  is  a  curious 
old  double  coffin  slab,  the  bases  and  shafts  remain- 
ing, the  crosses  broken  off. 

When  the  prosperity  of  the  Cinque  Ports  was  at 
its  highest  the  people  of  Pett  looked  over  the 
south-western  corner  of  a  sort  of  shallow  inland 
sea  separated  from  the  Channel  by  banks  of  shingle 
and  stretching  long  fjords  up  the  valleys  of  Brede, 
Tillingham,  and  Rother ;  it  also  extended  into 
Kent  and  bordered  Romney  Marsh.  Two  islands 
rose  from  the  waters,  both  of  them  quite  near 
the  land ;  on  the  smaller  one  was  Rye,  like  Tyre, 
standing  out  of  the  sea ;  on  the  larger,  slightly 
resembling  South  America  in  shape,  was  the  petty 
port  of  Iham,  but  when  Winchelsea  fell  into  the 
waves  it  was  chosen  as  the  best  spot  on  which  it 
should  be  rebuilt.  To-day  the  scene  is  vastly 
changed ;  the  islands  are  still  there,  but  they  look 
over  marshy  flats  drained  by  water-courses,  and 
cattle  peacefully  browse  on  the  daisy-spattered 
grass  where  England's  first  navy  used  to  anchor. 
The  shore  of  these  flats  is  shingle  and  mud ;  it  has 
to  be  protected  with  faggots  kept  in  place  by 
stakes  that  have  a  tendency  to  grow. 

The  exact  site  of  Old  Winchelsea  is  known  to 
no  mortal  man,  but  it  must  have  been  farther 
south  than  the  present  town,  and  it  is  probably 


364  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

marshland  to-day.  Great  damage  was  done  to  it 
by  storms  in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
and  in  a  fearful  tempest  of  1287  it  was  finally 
washed  away.  Leland,  who  made  his  antiquarian 
tour  through  England  1534-1543,  gives  us  the 
following  account  of  the  foundation  of  the  new 
town  (Itinerary,  vi.  51-52) : — 

"The  olde  Toune  of  Winchelesey  of  a  vi.  or  7. 
yeres  together  felle  to  a  very  soore  and  manifest 
Ruine,  be  reason  of  olde  Rages  of  the  Se,  and 
totally  in  the  tyme  of  the  aforesayde  vi.  or  7. 
yeres. 

"In  the  space  of  these  aforesayde  Yeres  the 
People  of  Winchelesey  made  sute  to  Kyng  Edward 
the  first  for  Remedy  and  a  new  Plot  to  set  them  a 
Toun  on. 

"  Whereapon  the  King  sent  thither  John  Kirkeby 
Bishop  of  Ely  and  Treasorer  of  England,  and  vewid 
a  Plot  to  make  the  new  Toune  of  Winchelesey  on, 
the  wich  was  at  that  tyme  a  Ground  wher  Conies 
partely  did  resorte.  Syr  John  Tregose  a  Knight 
was  the  chief  Owner  of  it,  and  one  Maurice  and 
Bataille  Abbay.  The  King  compoundid  with  them : 
and  so  was  there  vii.  score  and  tenne  Acres  limited 
to  the  new  Toune.  .  .  .  Then  in  the  tyme  of  the 
Yere  aforesayde  the  King  set  to  his  Help  in 
beginning  and  waulling  New  Winchelesey :  and  the 
Inhabitantes  of  Olde  Winchelesey  tooke  by  a  litle 
and  a  litle  and  buildid  at  the  new  Towne.  .  .  .  But 
or  x  x  yeres  were  expired  from  the  beginning  of 
the  Building  of  New  Winchelesey  it  twas  twise 
enterid  by  Enemies,  first  by  Frenchemen,  that  did 
much  hurt  in  the  Toune,  and  secundarily  by  the 
Spaniards" 

A  place  which  in  many  ways  resembles  Win- 
chelsea,  different  as  are  all  the  details,  is  Shelburne 


WINCHELSEA  365 

in  Nova  Scotia,  where  American  Loyalists  after  the 
Revolutionary  War  sought  to  build  another  New 
York  among  barren  rocks  and  frozen  forests, 
where,  in  the  picturesque  language  of  Sam  Slick 
(Judge  Haliburton),  agricultural  produce  must  be 
raked  up  with  a  small  comb. 

Block  upon  block  has  been  laid  out,  the  sites 
of  streets  that  were  to  be  can  be  traced  far 
through  the  woods,  but  where  a  great  city  was 
to  stand  a  mere  village  actually  exists. 

Winchelsea  was  superbly  designed,  broad 
straight  streets  cut  up  the  area  into  large  square 
blocks  in  a  way  that  could  hardly  have  been 
improved  upon,  and  had  the  place  grown  as  its 
founders  hoped  there  would  always  have  been 
plenty  of  light  and  air.  Its  splendid  thorough- 
fares indeed,  imperially  planned,  form  a  delightful 
contrast  not  only  with  the  cramped  lanes  of 
other  mediaeval  towns,  but  still  more  with  the 
mean  and  narrow  little  streets  that  satisfied  the 
founders  of  Middlesbrough  six  centuries  later. 
To  those  small-minded  rent  collectors  indeed  this 
town  is  an  eloquent  rebuke.  And  though  gardens 
and  trees  now  occupy  the  spaces  planned  for 
mansions  and  warehouses,  and  the  population  is 
less  than  six  hundred,  Winchelsea  to-day  is  far 
more  a  town  than  a  village.  Edward  took  the 
deepest  interest  in  the  progress  of  the  new  port, 
and  for  a  time  he  personally  supervised  the 
work  from  the  house  of  his  friend,  William  of 
Etchingham,  in  the  village  of  Udimore  close  by. 
The  Town  Hall,  figured  as  the  chapter-heading, 
belongs  to  this  period  (late  thirteenth  century), 
and  it  is  interesting  as  the  only  specimen  of 
mediaeval  municipal  architecture  in  Sussex  and 
one  of  very  few  in  England;  it  is  still  used  for 


366  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

its  original  purpose,  though  this  has  not  been 
continuously  the  case.  It  is  built  of  rubble  stone, 
and  at  the  west  end  is  a  chimney  with  panelled 
ornament ;  both  lower  and  upper  chambers  have 
large  fireplaces  with  flat  segmental  arches  sup- 
ported by  rather  puzzling  arrangements  of  very 
plain  shafts  and  corbels.  The  ceiling  of  the  lower 
and  open  roof  of  the  upper  chambers  have  heavy 
timbering ;  though  the  windows  are  modern  an 
original  pointed  door  and  round-headed  opening 
remain.  Between  the  stories  on  the  exterior 
are  corbels  to  support  beams  evidently  for  a 
wooden  cloister  over  the  pavement.  At  the  east 
end  is  an  old  lock-up  with  very  thick  oak  boarding 
and  an  opening  in  the  wall  has  double  iron  bars. 

From  the  constant  visits  of  the  French  and  the 
general  state  of  insecurity  at  the  time  of  Win- 
chelsea's  foundation,  and  in  fact  for  centuries 
afterwards,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  its  defences 
were  among  the  first  considerations  of  its  builders. 
Nature  had  already  done  much,  and  the  account 
of  the  approaches  to  the  town  supplied  by  Thomas 
Walsingham  (c.  1400)  is  hardly  exaggerated.  "  It 
stands  on  a  hill  very  steep  to  the  sea,  and  over- 
hanging the  port ;  the  road  leading  from  it  to 
which  is  not  straight  lest  its  great  declivity  should 
make  people  stumble  headlong  as  they  walk  down, 
or  oblige  them  to  go  up  rather  on  all  fours,  but 
slopes  downwards,  turning  sometimes  on  one 
side  and  sometimes  to  the  other."  There  are 
three  ruined  gates,  two  on  the  town  level  and 
one  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  only  a  little  above 
the  marshes.  The  Strand  Gate,  from  which  there 
is  a  magnificent  view  over  the  flats  to  Rye,  has 
four  large  round  turrets  that  seem  to  date  from 
the  first  beginnings  of  the  town,  but  the  flat 


WINCHELSEA 


367 


arches  and  ribbed  vault  between  them  are  of 
fifteenth-century  character.  Such  is  the  case  with 
the  whole  of  the  other  gate  on  a  high  level,  the 
Perry,  Pipewell,  or  Land  Gate,  an  insignificant 
oblong  structure  with  flat  arches  and  a  rough 
vault  supported  by  ribs,  a  shield  with  arms  over 
one  of  the  arches.  Near  it  on  higher  ground  by 
the  windmill  is  the  site  of  the  castle,  where  are 
some  slight  rubble  foundations  that  may  be  a 
fragment  of  it,  or  of  St.  Leonard's  Church,  or 
of  almost  anything  else.  (In  the  Town  Hall  is 


STRAND    GATE,    WINCHELSEA. 

an  interesting  painting  on  wood  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  It  represents  a  most  benevolent-looking 
person  holding  a  windmill,  which  is  said  to  have 
come  from  this  church.)  Between  the  gate  and 
the  site  of  the  castle  are  slight  fragments  of  the 
town  wall,  a  surprisingly  poor  piece  of  work, 
merely  two  and  a  half  feet  of  rubble  that  might 
have  suggested  the  remark  of  Tobiah  the 
Ammonite  that  "  if  a  fox  go  up  he  shall  break 
down  their  stone  wall." 
From  the  site  of  the  castle  to  the  New  Gate, 


368  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

protecting  the  west  side  of  the  town,  a  ditch  and 
bank  are  very  distinct,  and  for  at  any  rate  the 
greater  part  of  the  distance — some  twelve  hundred 
yards — they  do  not  seem  to  have  been  supple- 
mented by  any  wall.  The  New  Gate  is  a  very 
bald  rubble  structure,  its  vault  resting  on  three 
ribs,  a  triangular  guard-room  of  some  sort  on 
the  east.  It  is  fifteenth-century  work,  and  walling 
of  the  same  poor  quality  as  that  noticed  above 
started  from  it,  but  apparently  did  not  extend 
very  far.  Along  the  eastern  and  northern  sides 
of  the  town  the  ground  was  naturally  very 
steep,  in  places  it  has  been  artificially  scarped 
and  a  sustaining  wall  constructed.  The  barons 
of  Winchelsea  were  not  very  clerical  in  their 
tastes,  and  when  the  town  was  moved  they  got 
a  promise  from  the  king  (which  was  broken  by 
his  son,  Edward  II.)  that  no  religious  house  should 
be  permitted  in  the  new  town  except  one  for  the 
Friars  Minors  or  Franciscans.  The  quire  of  their 
church  (p.  354)  remains  in  a  garden,  it  is  roofless 
and  plant-grown,  all  the  tracery  is  gone  from  the 
windows,  but  it  is  a  good  example  of  the  period 
(c.  1300)  when  it  was  built.  It  possesses  a  three- 
sided  apse,  and  has  four  bays  ;  the  windows  are 
under  lancet  arches  and  each  had  three  lights, 
there  are  doors  north  and  south,  the  altar  plat- 
form is  grass-grown  and  there  are  traces  of  the 
piscina.  (Apses  are  extremely  unusual  in  England 
at  the  date  of  this  church  though  they  are  fairly 
frequent  both  earlier  and  later.)  The  western 
arch  has  clustered  responds,  and  south  of  it  is 
a  turret  with  stone  roof  whose  stair  led  to  a 
passage  in  the  wall  of  the  narrow  south  aisle  of 
the  nave,  of  which  there  are  scanty  traces,  and 
onto  the  leads  of  the  roof.  The  nave  seems  to 


WINCHELSEA  369 

have  had  no  north  aisle,  it  formed  the  preaching- 
house  of  the  brothers  whose  convent  was  on  its 
southern  side.  During  the  eighteenth  century  it 
was  the  home  of  the  Weston  brothers,  who  figure 
in  Thackeray's  unfinished  novel,  Denis  Duval, 
which  ends  abruptly  with  the  story  of  a  fearful 
fight  between  a  king's  ship  and  John  Paul  Jones, 
"than  whom  a  braver  traitor  never  wore  sword." 
Squire  Weston  and  his  brother  were  immensely 
respected  in  Winchelsea.  Thackeray  makes  one 
of  them  churchwarden,  but  as  they  were  Roman 
Catholics  this  point  seems  to  require  explanation. 
It  eventually  turned  out  that  their  real  mode  of 
livelihood  was  highway  robbery,  and  after  some 
almost  incredible  escapes  they  were  eventually 
executed  together.  The  whole  of  the  conventual 
buildings  were  destroyed  in  the  early  years  of 
the  nineteenth  century  when  the  present  house 
was  erected,  remarkable  for  its  park  and  wide 
plantations,  and  all  that  characterises  a  country 
mansion  within  the  defences  of  a  town. 

The  most  beautiful  object  in  Winchelsea,  its  yard 
occupying  a  whole  block,  is  the  parish  church, 
dedicated  to  St.  Thomas.  It  was  originally  cruci- 
form, but  there  only  remain  the  chancel  with 
its  side  chapels  and  the  ruined  transept.  It  is 
of  early  fourteenth-century  character,  the  most 
beautiful  of  its  date  in  Sussex,  and  it  has  not 
many  rivals  of  its  own  class  nearer  than  Exeter 
Cathedral.  The  nave  aisles  were  a  little  narrower 
than  the  chapels  of  the  chancel ;  nothing  remains 
above  ground,  but  its  tiled  floor  has  been  found 
in  digging  graves.  Deep  arched  recesses  with 
clustered  responds  enclose  the  east  windows  of  the 
roofless  transepts,  and  on  the  south  a  tref oiled 
piscina  remains.  Both  chancel  and  chapels  have 


370  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

tiled  span-roofs  of  the  same  height;  they  extend 
together  for  three  bays,  and  the  chancel  projects 
another  bay  towards  the  east,  this  part  having 
a  parapet  with  open  tracery  of  cusped  triangles, 
and  under  it  is  a  little  crypt  with  a  tunnel  vault 
having  ribs  on  each  side  of  the  two  little  windows. 
A  block  of  masonry,  gable- topped,  supports  the 
east  end  of  the  north  chapel  by  means  of  a  flying 
buttress,  and  the  corner  is  filled  up  by  a  small 
original  vestry,  recently  restored.  The  side 
windows,  of  the  most  beautiful  early  Decorated 
character  are  three-light  without  but  five-light 
within,  the  outer  lights  being  blind ;  they  have 
shafts  both  against  walls  and  mullions,  their 
arrangement  is  extremely  unusual,  the  rubble 
walls  were  originally  plastered.  Moulded  arches, 
the  most  magnificent  of  their  kind,  separate  the 
chancel  from  its  chapels,  and  they  rest  on  banded 
clustered  pillars,  each  with  four  large  shafts  of 
stone  and  four  slenderer  ones  of  black  marble. 
The  south  chapel  has  three  sedilia  and  a  piscina 
with  shelf,  the  former  have  cusped  arches, 
pinnacles,  gables  and  crockets,  they  are  separated 
by  clustered  marble  shafts,  and  there  is  diaper- 
work  at  the  back.  The  chancel  has  similar  but 
less  elaborate  ones,  which,  as  well  as  the  east 
window  and  other  parts,  were  restored  about 
1850,  a  period  when  men  were  anxious  to  paint 
the  lily,  and  imagined  themselves  called  upon  to 
restore  old  churches  "  to  more  than  their  original 
beauty,"  and  the  sanctuary  suffered  accordingly. 

Against  the  side  walls  are  the  most  glorious 
canopied  tombs  in  the  usual  style  of  the  period, 
when  men  built  really  beautiful  sepulchres ;  the 
fronts  of  the  altars  have  small  canopied  niches, 
and  above,  between  pinnacles,  tall  enriched  gables 


Hannah. 


WINCHELSEA   CHURCH. 


To  face  p.  370. 


WINCHELSEA  371 

rise  over  cusped  arches,  all  the  details,  foliage  with 
oak-leaves,  heads  and  other  features  are  of  the 
best.  On  the  north  there  are  three — a  figure  in 
armour,  a  lady  and  a  boy  have  effigies  in  black 
marble,  but  who  they  were  is  unknown.  The  two 
tombs  on  the  south  almost  certainly  represent 
Gervase  and  Stephen  Alard,  the  latter  the  grand- 
son of  the  former,  and  both  were  admirals  of  the 
Cinque  Ports.  The  great  family  of  Alard  was 
settled  at  Winchelsea  soon  after  the  Conquest, 
and  no  less  than  eleven  of  them  at  different 
times  held  the  office  of  Bailiff  and  superintended 
the  government  of  the  port,  both  when  it  stood 
on  the  flats  by  the  sea  and  after  its  movement 
to  the  Iham  heights.  Though  in  Italy  extremely 
common,  in  England  it  was  extremely  rare  for  a 
conspicuous  family  thus  generation  after  genera- 
tion to  dominate  the  administration  of  a  town. 
Gervase  Alard  was  employed  in  Solway  Firth  to 
support  Edward's  invasions  of  Scotland  ;  his  effigy 
is  one  of  the  very  few  mediaeval  examples  in  Eng- 
land that  will  stand  the  very  closest  examination  ; 
his  legs  are  crossed,  he  lies  in  chain  armour,  his 
feet  on  a  lion  which  is  turning  its  head,  his  hands 
clasp  a  heart,  and  the  mail  is  turned  back  at  the 
wrists  ;  his  monument  is  the  most  ornate  of  any 
in  the  church,  with  triple  gables  and  diaper- work 
at  the  back. 

The  town  suffered  constantly  from  French  raids. 
In  1377  it  was  successfully  defended  by  the  brave 
Abbot  of  Battle,  Hamo  of  Offyngton,  called  the 
saver  of  Sussex  and  of  England,  who  also  rescued 
the  captured  Prior  of  Lewes.  In  1380,  however, 
the  place  was  taken  and  burnt,  and  it  suffered  the 
same  fate  again  in  1449,  by  which  time  its  fortunes 
were  hopelessly  on  the  wane.  The  present  timber 


372  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

roofs  of  the  church  seem  to  date  from  the  restora- 
tion that  was  carried  out  after  this  last  disaster,* 
and  the  present  western  arch  of  the  chancel 
belongs  to  the  same  period;  the  original  one 
which  helped  to  support  the  central  tower  was 
clearly  much  higher.  It  seems,  indeed,  that  on 
this  occasion  the  nave  was  taken  down  to  restore 
the  transepts  and  chancel,  and  as  the  original 
tower  could  not  be  rebuilt,  a  detached  one  was 
provided  for  the  bells.  The  large  window  of  the 
south  transept  is  partly  walled  up,  and  there 
is  a  gable  mark  for  a  porch  that  has  a  late  six- 
teenth- or  even  seventeenth-century  appearance. 
At  some  time  subsequent  to  this  the  transept  was 
also  abandoned  and  its  three  arches  into  the 
chancel  were  walled  up,  a  Tudor  porch  from  some- 
where being  re-erected  on  part  of  the  site  of  the 
central  tower.  Between  1765  and  1779  a  tower  for 
the  bells  was  most  clumsily  provided  over  the  west 
part  of  the  north  aisle,  f  a  monstrous  wall  cutting 
one  of  the  old  tombs  in  two.  Its  stones  were 
apparently  taken  from  the  campanile,  those  not 
required  being  sold  for  harbour  works  at  Rye. 
The  removal  of  the  lower  tower  walls,  and  other- 
wise supporting  its  upper  part,  so  restoring  the 
space  to  the  church,  has  been  one  of  the  many 
good  works  of  the  present  rector  (W.  R.  Fox),  who 
is  repairing  the  church  in  the  most  careful  and 
loving  way.  There  is  at  present  only  one  bell ; 
over  the  pyramid  roof  of  the  low  tower  rises  a 
vane  with  remarkable  ironwork. 

Fragments  of  rubble  mediaeval  walling,  vaulted 
cellars,  and  a  few  simple  details  increase  the  charm 
of  the  shady  streets  and  preserve  memories  of 
mediaeval  hospitals,  Dominican  friary,  and  private 

*  But  may  be  earlier.  t  Pamphlet,  by  J.  D.  H.  Patch. 


WINCHELSEA  373 

houses ;  in  some  ways,  indeed,  the  life  of  a  town 
during  the  Middle  Ages  seems  nearer  to  us  than 
almost  anywhere  else.  As  at  Chichester,  Elizabeth 
here  professed  to  be  reminded  of  the  metropolis 
and,  impressed  by  "  the  good  situation,  ancient 
buildings,  and  grave  Bench  of  a  Mayor  and  twelve 
Jurats  in  their  scarlet  gowns,  and  city-like  deport- 
ment of  the  people,"  she  gave  it,  as  she  thought 
deservedly,  the  name  of  "  Little  London."  *  On 
the  north  side  of  the  hill,  half-way  down,  where 
now  is  a  thick  wood  of  young  trees,  is  a  spring  of 
the  clearest  water  to  which  the  people  have  given 
the  name  of  the  queen  who  so  appreciated  their 
town. 

John  Evelyn  neither  possesses  nor  deserves  such 
a  memorial,  but  the  account  of  his  visit  111  his 
Diary  gives  an  interesting  idea  of  the  condition 
of  Winchelsea  during  the  Commonwealth,  to  whose 
establishment  both  its  members  of  Parliament  had 
contributed  their  support.  "  4  June,  1652,  at  Rie. 
On  Whitsunday  I  went  to  the  Church  (woh  is  a 
very  faire  one)  and  heard  one  of  their  Canters, 
who  dismiss'd  the  assembly  rudely  and  without 
any  blessing.  Here  I  stay'd  till  the  10th  with  no 
small  impatience,!  when  I  walk'd  over  to  survey 
the  ruines  of  Winchelsea,  that  ancient  Cinq  Port, 
which  by  the  remaines  and  ruines  of  ancient 
streets  and  public  structures  discovers  it  to  have 
been  formerly  a  considerable  and  large  Citty. 
There  are  to  be  seene  vast  caves  and  vaults, 
walls  and  towers,  ruins  and  monasteries,  and  a 
sumptuous  Church,  in  which  are  some  handsome 
monuments,  especially  of  the  Templars  burid  just 
in  the  manner  of  those  in  the  Temple  at  London. 

*  So  it  is  related  by  Jeake. 

t  Till  his  wife  should  arrive  from  the  Continent. 


374  THE   SUSSEX   COAST 

This  place  being  now  all  in  rubbish,  and  a  few 
despicable  ho  veils  and  cottages  onely  standing,  hath 
yet  a  Major.  The  sea  wch  formerly  render'd  it  a 
rich  and  commodious  port  has  now  forsaken  it." 

The  Churchwardens'  Accounts  during  the  eigh- 
teenth century  contain  such  entries  as  "  Dressing 
of  wittels  at  the  wacking  the  bouns  "  (beating  the 
bounds  of  the  parish),  "  eatting  and  tobacker  and 
for  one  point  of  wine,"  "  for  a  year's  dog  whiping." 
Most  parishes  seem  .to  have  made  special  and 
rather  elaborate  provision  for  whipping  the  dogs, 
and  it  is  a  point  on  which  one  would  gladly  have 
additional  information,  though  it  is  clear  that  one 
chief  object  was  to  restrain  the  poor  dogs  from 
attending  church  service.  Did  the  dog-whipper's 
jurisdiction  extend  to  cats  or  to  small  boys  ?  *  Did 
he  wear  a  uniform?  What  amount  of  official  recog- 
nition was  accorded  him?  Was  the  Lord  High 
Chief  Whipper  of  Dogs  at  any  time  a  figure  at 
the  Coronation?  The  money  spent  on  whipping 
the  dogs  would  not,  at  any  rate  so  far  as  Winchel- 
sea  is  concerned,  appear  to  have  been  expended  in 
vain.  Not  only  apparently  did  the  whipped  dogs 
seriously  take  to  heart  their  lesson  and  improve 
their  deportment,  but  their  descendants  have  in- 
herited dispositions  so  vastly  ameliorated  that  any 
movement  to  revive  the  obsolete  office  would 
appear  to  be  absolutely  superfluous. 

French  Huguenot  refugees  established  a  few  tex- 
tile industries,  but  not  on  a  large  enough  scale  to 
revive  the  prosperity  of  the  town,  and  the  works 
were  soon  removed  elsewhere,  though  to-day  Win- 
chelsea  possesses  a  most  creditable  little  Lace 

*  Later.  This  seems  to  have  been  the  case  ;  the  Burwash 
parish  accounts  have  an  entry,  "Whipping  disorderly  boys 
and  dogs  during  divine  service," 


Hannah. 


WINCHELSEA   CHURCH  :    SOUTH-EAST   AND   SOUTH-WEST. 


To  face  p.  374. 


WINCHELSEA  375 

School  to  preserve  the  tradition.  In  1738,  says 
De  Foe,  "  Grass  grows  not  only  where  the  Harbour 
was,  but  even  in  the  streets " ;  in  1807,  writes 
Gough,  "The  grass  which  grows  in  the  streets, 
though  paved  frequently,  lets  for  4Z.  a  year,  and 
little  more  than  the  skeleton  of  a  regular  and 
handsome  town  remains."  In  1790  preached  John 
Wesley  under  the  large  ash-tree  west  of  the 
church,  and  though  he  complains  that  he  could 
not  induce  the  people  to  give  up  smuggling,  "  the 
accursed  thing,"  there  is  still  a  flourishing  Methodist 
community  in  the  town. 

Henry  VIII.,  specially  anxious  to  defend  this 
shore,  built  a  strong  castle  for  the  defence  of  what 
was  left  of  the  port,  and  though  it  is  locally  said 
that  originally  a  biscuit  could  be  thrown  from  its 
parapets  on  to  the  decks  of  the  ships,  it  now  stands 
helplessly  in  the  middle  of  the  marshes,  more  than 
a  mile  from  the  sea.  It  is  called  Camber  Castle, 
the  first  word  being  the  East  Sussex  dialect  term 
for  a  harbour.  It  is  of  considerable  interest,  as 
illustrating  the  modification  of  mediaeval  methods 
of  fortification  after  artillery  had  become  a  serious 
weapon,  and,  indeed,  it  approximates  to  the  design 
of  the  martello  towers.  The  plan  of  the  curtain 
is  formed  by  four  huge  circular  buildings  at  the 
corners,  between  them  on  three  sides  two  straight 
walls  forming  an  obtuse  angle,  on  the  other  to 
landward  a  projecting  round-ended  gateway.  The 
facing  is  ashlar,  but  yellow  brick  is  a  good  deal 
used  in  the  interior ;  the  proportions  are  extremely 
massive,  and  the  mortar  practically  cement.  The 
embrasures  for  the  guns  are  covered  by  elliptical 
arches,  and  each  has  a  wide  air-shaft  in  the  thick- 
ness of  the  wall.  One  corner  tower  contains  the 
kitchen  with  a  huge  oven.  In  the  centre  of  the 


376  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

small  court  a  round  tower  rises  higher  than 
the  curtain ;  a  string  about  half-way  up  has  the 
Tudor  rose,  crosses,  and  other  devices  at  intervals. 
The  floors  were  evidently  extremely  massive,  there 
are  fireplaces  with  bricks  in  herring-bone  at  the 
back,  and  a  mural  stair  led  to  the  roof.  The 
stronghold  has  been  dismantled  since  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Udimore,  whence  Edward  I.  superintended  the 
building  of  the  new  Winchelsea,  stands  on  the 
ridge  between  the  valleys  of  Tillingham  and 
Brede,  overlooking  the  latter.  Its  name  was 
derived,  according  to  a  beautiful  legend,  from 
the  angels,  dissatisfied  with  the  site  originally 
selected  for  the  church,  flying  through  the  air 
with  the  materials,  chanting  "over  the  mere, 
over  the  mere."  This  is  a  much  prettier 
story  than  that  which  tells  how  Burwash  was 
named  because  the  Romans  there  cleaned  of 
Sussex  mud  a  dog  named  Bur,  who  had  presum- 
ably been  hunting  rabbits.  Udimore  church  has 
a  blocked  Norman  door,  and  on  the  south  an 
arcade  of  three  arches  dating  from  about  1200. 
The  chancel  is  later  Early  English,  and  one  of  its 
lancets  forms  a  low  side  window ;  it  is  slightly 
wider  than  the  nave  on  the  south,  and  its  arch 
has  corbels  in  the  jambs.  The  Early  English  tower 
is  cemented,  and  only  prevented  from  falling  by 
huge  buttresses  of  brick.  The  angel-chosen  site 
of  the  church  is  not  very  convenient  for  the 
modern  village,  which  is  mostly  strung  along  the 
main  road  to  Rye ;  but  close  by  the  churchyard, 
in  completest  neglect,  is  a  long  fifteenth-century 
building  of  timber  and  plaster — the  Court  House 
it  is  called.  The  upper  story  projects,  with  a 
moulded  beam  resting  on  brackets  that  spring 


WINCHELSEA  377 

from  shafts ;  there  is  a  gateway  with  quatrefoils 
in  the  spandrels  of  its  arch. 

Over  the  peaceful  valley  of  the  Brede,  close  to 
Winchelsea  on  the  Hastings  road,  is  Icklesham, 
a  village  remarkable  for  its  most  interesting  old 
church  of  several  styles,  a  sanctuary  convenient 
and  beautiful  that  knows  not  right  angle  nor 
straight  line,  and  seems  particularly  to  reflect 
the  spirit  of  Sussex.  The  nave  has  three  Norman 
arches  aside,  pierced  apparently  through  older 
but  not  pre-Conquest  walls ;  the  round  pillars 
have  curious  caps,  palm-leaves,  scales,  scallops, 
&c.,  in  part  doubtless  suggested  by  Crusaders. 
The  south  aisle  has  its  original  little  Norman 
windows  and  corresponding  arch  at  the  east 
end.  The  north  aisle  has  been  relighted  in 
Perpendicular  times,  but  at  its  east  end  a 
Norman  arch  with  round  responds  and  nail-head 
ornament  opens  to  the  tower,  likewise  a  Norman 
composition,  rib- vaulted  with  three  shafts  in  each 
corner  as  in  the  holy  of  holies  at  Bishopstone. 
Without  it  has  plain  pilasters,  and  the  upper 
stage  has  shafted  double  windows.  The  east 
tower  arch  is  an  Early  English  insertion,  and  it 
opens  into  a  beautiful  chapel  built  during  the  first 
period  of  the  same  style  with  lancets  and  mural 
arcading.  There  open  into  the  chancel  two 
sharply  pointed  arches,  whose  responds  and  pier 
have  delicate  corner-shafts,  and  the  pier  has  jamb- 
shafts  too.  The  nave  arch  of  the  chancel  is  of 
similar  character,  but  its  windows  are  later — 
Decorated,  in  point  of  fact  mostly  modern.  On  the 
south  three  arches  with  octagonal  pillars  open  to 
the  early  fourteenth-century  south  chapel,  which 
has  beautiful  mural  arcading,  a  trefoiled  piscina 
and  Decorated  windows,  the  east  one  of  four  lights. 


S  many  another  town  is  payrid  and  y-lassid 
Within  these  few  yeris,  as  we  mow  se  at  eye 
Lo,  Sirs,  here  fast  by  Wynchelse  and  Ry. 
CHAUCER,  Canterbury  Tales, 
Merchant's  second  story. 


Seen  from  a  distance,  her  great  church  on  the 
hill-top  rising  over  her  red  tile  roofs,  Rye  is 
perhaps  the  most  beautiful  of  all  Sussex  towns, 
and  though  the  picturesqueness  of  her  streets 
has  sometimes  been  exaggerated,  there  are  few 
places  in  England  on  the  whole  so  redolent  of 
the  past.  The  contrast  with  Winchelsea  is  very 
great;  instead  of  the  place  being  seated  on  an 
ample  plateau  with  cliffs  all  round,  crowded 
buildings  everywhere  climb  steep  hill-sides,  and 
practically  no  part  of  the  town  is  level.  Instead 
of  wide  leafy  thoroughfares  there  are  narrow 
lanes,  which  usually  are  not  very  straight,  and 
the  houses  are  close  together,  for  space  on  the 
island  was  valuable ;  there  are  hardly  any  trees, 
except  in  the  churchyard  on  the  highest  ground. 

To  supplement  the  institutions  that  belonged 
to  the  Cinque  Ports  as  a  whole,  each  place  framed 

378 


RYE  379 

by-laws  for  its  own  internal  concerns,  and  these 
formed  its  Customal ;  a  few  extracts  from  that 
belonging  to  Rye  will  give  an  idea  of  its  organisa- 
tion in  days  gone  by.* 

"  These  be  the  usages  of  the  commonalty  of  the 
town  of  Rye,  used  the  time  of  mind  which  men's 
minds  can  not  think  the  contrary.  Written  in 
A.D.  1568,  being  the  ninth  year  of  the  reign  of 
Queen  Elizabeth.  .  .  . 

"And  if  the  new  mayor,  so  chosen  and  elected, 
will  not  take  the  charge,  but  refuse  it,  all  the 
whole  commons  together  shall  go  beat  down  his 
chief  tenement.  .  .  . 

"And,  when  any  man  taketh  the  degree  of  the 
holy  church,  the  mayor  (as  coroner)  shall  go  unto 
him  to  inquire  the  cause  why  he  runneth  to  holy 
church  ;  and  if  he  will  acknowledge  his  felony,  let 
it  be  recorded,  and  immediately  he  loseth  all  his 
goods  and  chattels  as  forfeited,  of  the  which  the 
mayor  shall  answer  unto  the  town  ;  and,  if  he  will, 
he  may  remain  in  the  church  and  churchyard  by 
the  space  of  forty  days,  and,  at  the  end  of  forty 
days,  he  shall  forsake  the  land.  And  he,  sitting 
upon  the  churchyard-stile,  before  the  mayor,  shall 
his  own  self  choose  his  port  of  passage,  and,  in 
case  he  will  make  his  abjuration  within  forty 
days,  he  shall  be  accepted,  and,  anon,  the  abjura- 
tion done,  he  shall  take  cross ;  and  the  mayor 
shall  do  to  be  proclaimed,  in  the  king's  name, 
that  no  man,  upon  the  pain  of  life  and  member, 
shall  do  him  harm  or  molestation  all  the  while 

*  It  is  printed  in  William  Holloway's  History  and 
Antiquities  of  Rye,  1847,  a  useful  but  very  discoursive 
work,  in  reading  which  we  rather  tire  of  the  author's 
religious  views  and  of  his  trip  to  Boulogne, 


380  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

he  keepeth  the  king's  highway  towards  the  port 
that  he  hath  chosen  for  his  passage. 

"And  when  any  is  found  cutting  a  purse,  or 
of  taking  and  picking  silver  or  other  money  out 
of  any  purse  in  the  market-place,  or  any  other 
place,  at  the  suit  of  the  appellant,  it  is  accustomed 
that  the  said  cut-purse  or  pick-purse  shall  have 
one  of  his  ears  cut  off  from  his  head ;  and  then 
he  shall  be  led  unto  the  town's  end,  and  there  to 
swear  and  to  abjure  never  to  come  within  the 
town  again  upon  the  pain  of  losing  his  other 
ear,  and  to  abjure  the  town  upon  pain  of  losing 
his  life ;  and  if  he  be  found  the  third  time,  whether 
he  were  before  marked,  within  the  town  or  with- 
out, he  shall  suffer  judgment.  .  .  . 

"If  any  man  set  any  hand  or  weapon  with 
violence  upon  the  mayor,  or  saith  him  evil  in 
the  court  or  out  of  the  court,  or  else  maketh 
resistance  against  him,  let  him  be  immediately 
taken  and  grievously  punished  by  his  body ;  and 
by  the  jurats  of  the  said  town  he  shall  be  taken 
to  make  fine  unto  the  town  because  of  the  offence, 
and  to  make  fine  unto  the  mayor  because  of  his 
trespass ;  and  if  the  mayor  be  stricken  by  hand, 
or  by  weapon,  he  that  striketh  him  shall  lose 
that  hand  that  he  striketh  with,  if  the  mayor 
will." 

Mediaeval  population  being  somewhat  scanty, 
and  the  demands  of  their  fleet  both  for  fishing 
and  commerce  being  very  great,  it  was  altogether 
an  advantage  for  the  Ports  to  receive  new  settlers, 
their  naturalisation  laws  were  accordingly  very 
liberal.  The  crowded  conditions  in  Eye  made  it 
somewhat  subject  to  epidemics,  and  its  death- 
rate  was  undoubtedly  high.  And  so  the  Customal 
proceeds  to  provide  for  easy  granting  of  the 


RYE  381 

franchise  to  desirable  immigrants.  It  does  not 
appear  to  have  mattered  whether  the  applicant 
were  of  British  birth  or  not,  ideas  of  nationality 
had  hardly  grown  up,  and  in  theory  Christendom 
was  one  state  under  the  rule  of  an  Emperor  Holy 
and  Roman. 

"The  mayor  and  jurats  may  make  of  no  free- 
man a  freeman  in  this  manner,  that  is  to  say, 
where  any  stranger  cometh  unto  the  town  and 
inhabiteth,  and  there  dwells  by  a  whole  year 
and  a  day,  and  occupieth  some  honest  craft, 
and  is  of  good  guiding  and  conversation,  and 
desire th  the  franchise,  he  shall  come  before  the 
mayor  and  jurats  in  the  playne  common  court 
praying  to  have  the  franchise ;  upon  the  which 
his  petition  it  shall  be  awarded  what  he  shall 
pay  to  the  commonalty  for  the  said  franchise ; 
having  which  award  he  shall  be  entered  in  the 
common  book  and  his  name.  Also  he  shall  make 
his  oath  under  these  words : 

" '  I  (A.  B.)  shall  faith  and  truth  bear  unto  our 
sovereign  lord  the  King  of  England,  and  to  his 
heirs  Kings  of  England,  and  to  the  mayor,  and 
jurats,  and  commonalty  of  the  town  of  Rye  from 
henceforth  ;  and  the  state  and  the  franchises  and 
liberty  of  the  same  town  shall  help,  keep,  and 
maintain  to  the  best  of  my  power.  And  I  shall 
not  in  no  wise  be  knowing  or  consenting  to 
break  them  nor  hurt  them.  And  my  scot  and 
lot  of  my  goods  and  chattels,  unto  the  aforesaid 
commonalty,  I  shall  well  and  truly  pay,  and 
content  when  I  shall  be  scotted  and  lotted;  so 
God  me  help.'  And  then  incontinently  kiss  the 
mayor,  and  so  he  shall  be  accepted  a  freeman 
into  the  franchises ;  and  he  shall  pay  unto  the 
mayor's  sergeant  two  shillings  and  to  the  common 


382  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

clerk  for  the  entry  two  pence."  The  business 
of  the  port  was  to  some  extent  communal,  it  was 
desired  rather  to  promote  the  general  prosperity 
of  the  town  than  large  individual  fortunes,  and 
there  was  something  to  be  said  for  the  view. 

"  If  any  merchant,  neighbour  or  stranger,  bring 
any  merchandize  to  sell  unto  the  town  of  Bye, 
all  the  freemen  of  the  said  town,  which  be  present 
unto  the  buying  of  the  said  merchandize  shall 
have  part  in  it  if  they  will  claim  part;  and  so 
shall  the  freemen  that  be  absent  have  part  in 
case  that  any  man  that  is  present  in  the  buying 
of  the  same  do  claim  part  for  any  freeman  that 
is  absent ;  and  the  said  merchandize  shall  be  evenly 
divided  according,  both  in  gains  and  in  loss." 
The  Customal  ends  with  the  often-quoted  prayer — 

"God  save  Englond  and  the  Towne  of  Rye." 

The  real  walls  of  Rye  were  those  of  her  ships, 
and  the  Cinque  Port  tactics  of  attacking  in  a 
storm,  keeping  to  windward  and  ramming  when 
the  opportunity  offered,  made  their  navies  dreaded 
by  their  foes.  Something  was  first  done  for  the 
fortification  of  the  port  when  during  the  twelfth 
century  the  Ypres  Tower  was  erected  near  the 
top  of  the  cliffs  on  the  south  side  of  the  town, 
probably  to  serve  as  a  sort  of  citadel  in  case  of 
attack.  It  is  a  square  building  of  two  stories,  a 
large  round  turret  at  each  angle,  one  containing 
a  stair ;  and  in  the  immensely  thick  rubble  walls 
remain  some  original  pointed  doors  and  little 
square-headed  windows.  On  the  west  side  are 
later  brackets  for  machicolations.  The  often-re- 
peated story  that  it  was  built  by  William  of  Ypres, 
Earl  of  Kent,  Stephen's  captain  of  mercenaries, 
has  been  refuted  by  H.  Sands,  and  it  almost 


LAND    GATE,    RYE. 


Hannah. 


THE    ROTHER. 


To  face  p.  382. 


RYE  383 

certainly  derived  its  present  name  from  a  fifteenth- 
century  tenant,  one  John  Iprys.  It  was  long  used 
as  a  prison  ;  adjoining  is  an  enclosure  that  has 
served  at  different  times  as  bowling-green  and 
gun-garden. 

Not  long  after  the  erection  of  the  tower  it  was 
felt  that  proper  town  walls  were  a  necessity,  and 
in  1194  (just  after  his  release)  Richard  I.  granted 
a  charter  for  their  erection.  On  the  south  side 
little  was  needed  to  supplement  the  natural 
defence  of  the  cliffs,  on  the  other  sides  the  wall 
was  carried  round  the  base  of  the  hill  with  the 
desire  of  enclosing  as  much  ground  as  was  prac- 
ticable. On  the  east  the  whole  site  has  been 
washed  away  by  the  sea,  and  a  regular  cliff  has 
been  formed  there ;  north  and  west  the  wall  may 
still  be  seen,  though  in  a  very  battered  state,  but 
probably  it  is  chiefly  fourteenth-century  repairs 
that  at  present  exist.  This  is  certainly  the  date 
of  the  Land  Gate  in  the  north-east  corner,  the 
only  town  gateway  that  exists  in  Sussex,  except 
the  rather  miniature  ones  at  Winchelsea.  At 
each  side  is  a  large  round  tower,  and  between 
them  are  two  pointed  arches  with  a  segmental 
vault,  grooved  for  the  portcullis.  There  are  tre- 
foiled  lancets,  and  on  the  exterior  is  a  fine 
machicolated  parapet.  Both  the  towers  are 
roofless. 

While  England  and  Normandy  were  under 
the  same  Crown  the  Confessor's  arrangements 
in  granting  the  Ports  to  the  Abbey  of  Fecamp 
were  not  found  to  be  inconvenient,  but  rather 
the  reverse;  after  the  French  reconquest  of 
Normandy  in  1303-4  (not  destined  to  be  the 
final  one),  it  was  intolerable  that  some  of  the 
chief  English  harbours  should  belong  to  what 


384  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

had  become  a  foreign  monastery,  everything  that 
went  on  in  them  was  known  to  the  French  king. 
In  1247  Henry  III.  accordingly  resumed  the  grant 
and  compensated  the  abbey  with  safely  inland 
and  rather  remote  estates  at  Cheltenham,  But 
the  decay  of  the  Ports  was  soon  to  begin,  and 
its  causes  were  purely  physical;  the  sea  kept 
breaking  in  where  it  was  not  wanted  and  de- 
positing shingle  where  salt  water  was  desired, 
and  very  slowly  but  terribly  surely  the  centre 
of  sea  power  in  the  kingdom  was  to  shift  to  the 
magnificent  rock-enclosed  harbours  of  the  west. 

Rye  Harbour  had  been  kept  scoured  by  the 
three  rivers  that  now  uniting  their  waters  at  the 
foot  of  her  hill  flow  in  a  common  channel  through 
wastes  of  shingle  to  the  sea :  the  Rother  and  the 
Brede  are  the  more  important,  the  Tillingham 
flows  between  them.  The  inning  of  shallow 
waters  had  been  going  on  from  immemorial  days, 
the  whole  area  of  Romney  Marsh  was  reclaimed 
by  the  Romans  (or  possibly  even  before  their  time), 
and  the  process  of  inning  was  constantly  proceed- 
ing. By  the  sixteenth  century  Rye  had  suffered 
so  much  that  in  1562  an  Inquisition  was  taken 
before  the  Lord  High  Admiral  of  England  in 
which  "  the  Jurors  present  and  say  (of  the  haven 
of  Camber)  that  the  inning  of  marshes  is  the 
cause  of  the  decay  of  the  said  haven  and  hath 
been  begun  since  1532.  Item  they  present  Sir 
John  Guldeford,  Knt.  hath  inned,  since  1542,  in 
Guldeford  marsh,  in  his  second  inning,  three  great 
and  huge  creeks,  which  have  been  and  are  an 
utter  decay  of  the  haven  of  Camber.  .  .  ." 

"  But  instead  of  opening  the  said  creeks  and 
laying  forth  the  low  marsh  lands  again,  Sir  John 
Guldeford  not  only  kept  what  he  had  iniied  off 


RYE  385 

himself,  but  his  heirs  continued  to  inn  and  embank 
more  lands  from  the  said  haven  till  at  last,  to 
complete  the  ruin  of  it,  in  1719,  Sir  Robert  Guide- 
ford,  Bart.,  caused  a  wall  or  dam  to  be  erected 
over  the  mouth  of  it,  at  the  Camber  point." — Burrell 
MSS. 

Nor  was  the  filling  up  of  her  harbour  the  only 
trouble  of  the  kind  from  which  Rye  suffered, 
though  there  was  some  compensation  in  the  tem- 
porary improvement  of  the  port  effected  by  the 
great  storm  of  1577  that  Holinshed  records.*  "  In 
the  Wish  at  Rie  (a  place  so  called)  the  water  came 
in  so  suddenlie,  and  flowed  so  high  about  mid- 
night, that  it  was  eight  or  nine  foot  high  in  men's 
houses ;  insomuch  that  if  one  William  White  had 
not  called  them  vp,  some  of  them  had  like  to 
have  been  drowned.  And  the  same  William 
White  having  a  bote  fetcht  a  great  companie 
of,  them  out  of  their  windowes,  and  carried  them 
to  drie  land  as  fast  as  he  could  fetch  them  which 
were  in  great  danger  and  f eare,  and  glad  to  escape 
with  their  lives.  Moreouer  the  water  came  in  so 
vehementlie  there,  that  it  brake  into  the  marishes, 
and  made  such  waie  that  were  of  late  yeares,  and 
now  before  this  great  floud  came,  a  cockeboat 
could  not  pass  in  at  a  low  water ;  now  a  fisher- 
man, drawing  six  foot  water  and  more,  may  come 
in,  and  have  good  harborough  there." 

In  1618  a  petition  was  sent  to  the  Lord  Warden 
(Zouch)  "  as  unto  our  only  stay  and  refuge,  next 
under  God  and  his  Majesty,"  complaining  that 
"now  is  our  harbour  so  decayed  that  all  trade 

*  Camden  says :  "The  sea,  to  make  amends  for  the  mis- 
chief it  had  done  it,  broke  in  so  violently  in  a  great  storm  as 
to  make  the  harbour  very  commodious,  to  which  another 
storm  in  my  time  haa  not  a  little  contributed." 

25 


386  THE   SUSSEX  COAST 

hath  forsaken  us  and  besides  the  importable 
charge  in  defending  the  rage  of  the  sea  from 
eating  up  our  wpys  to  the  town  and  maintaining 
the  jetties  and  places  of  refuge  for  our  few  fisher- 
boats  yet  remaining,"  &c.  But  nothing  seems  to 
have  been  done.  De  Foe  gives  a  gloomy  account 
in  1724.  "Its  Trade  is  in  Hops,  Wool,  Timber, 
Kettles,  Cannon,  Chimney-backs,  -&c.  ...  It  is 
a  very  great  Misfortune  that  its  Harbour  has 
been  so  much  damaged  by  the  Sea,  and  neglected ; 
for  it  is  almost  filled  up  in  several  Places,  where 
it  was  formerly  the  deepest,  and  most  convenient. 
Some  considerable  Families,  who  have  Lands  near, 
have  taken  Advantage  of  this,  to  extend  them 
further  upon  those  Sands,  which  the  Sea  in 
Storms  has  thrown  up  against  them ;  and  by 
digging  Ditches,  and  making  Drains  there  are 
now  Fields  and  Meadows  where  antiently  was 
nothing  but  Water.  By  this  Means  Ships  of  but 
a  middle  Size  cannot  come  to  any  convenient 
Distance  near  the  Town,  whereas  formerly  the 
largest  Vessels,  and  even  whole  Fleets  together 
could  anchor  just  by  the  Rocks  on  which  the 
Town  stands.  .  .  .  But  it  being  by  the  Means  I 
have  mention'd,  and  by  the  Inning  of  the  Channel 
and  waste  Lands  thereof,  which  prevented  the 
Flux  and  Reflux  of  the  Tide,  in  Danger  of  being 
utterly  lost,  an  Act  of  Parliament  was  procured 
in  the  Year  1721,  which  declares,  That  no  new 
Walls,  Banks,  Dams,  or  Stops,  shall  thereafter  be 
erected  on  either  Side  of  the  Water,  that  might 
stop  or  alter  the  Flux  or  Reflux  of  the  Sea, 
between  the  Mouth  of  the  Harbour,  bounded  by 
the  Camber  and  Castle-Points,  and  New  Shutt 
near  Craven-Sluice,  and  that  all  such  new  erected 
Walls,  Banks,  Dams  &c.  that  should  thereafter 


RYE  387 

be  erected  there,  between  High  and  Low  Water 
Mark,  should  be  deemed  public  Nuisances." 
Nothing  beyond  passing  Acts  was  done  until  at 
last  in  1750  the  cutting  of  a  serviceable  canal 
due  south  to  the  sea  was  actually  begun,  but  as  it 
soon  became  clear  that  its  mouth  would  be 
blocked  by  the  eastward  drift  of  shingle,  it  was 
abandoned  and  efforts  were  made  to  improve  the 
old  channel  instead. 

Rye  had  the  good  sense  to  concentrate  her  efforts 
on  a  single  large  cruciform  parish  church  instead 
of  providing  a  number  of  smaller  ones,  and  it  still 
remains  the  oldest  and  most  interesting  building  in 
the  town.  The  transept  walls  belonged  to  a  late 
Norman  church,  and  original  arches  open  into  the 
nave  aisles,  the  northern  one  having  scallop  caps, 
the  southern  rude  foliage  and  volutes ;  there  is 
some  good  arcading  with  banded  shafts  and  foliage 
caps,  zigzag  and  billet  mouldings.  Fine  clear- 
story windows  remain  in  the  west  walls,  but  the 
Norman  building  has  been  a  good  deal  interfered 
with  by  later  work.  The  nave  is  of  five  bays, 
Early  English  of  about  1190,  the  pillars  are  round 
except  for  one  each  side,  which  is  octagonal ;  the 
caps  and  the  just-pointed  arches  are  moulded,  and 
there  is  a  rudimentary  form  of  dog-tooth  on  the 
drip-stones,  a  passage  runs  along  the  lancets  of  the 
clearstory.  The  chancel  and  its  large  span-roof 
chapels  of  three  bays  are  also  Early  English  work, 
but  later ;  on  the  north  are  two  lofty  arches  with 
clustered  pillars.  The  north  or  St.  Clare's  chapel 
has  four  large  lancets  in  the  side  wall,  a  passage 
runs  along  them  and  they  have  dog-tooth  on  the 
drip-stones.  Corresponding  on  the  south,  in 
St.  Nicholas'  Chapel,  are  three  great  windows  much 
repaired,  each  two  lancets  and  a  circle  over,  they 


388  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

were  built  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  Between  the  south  transept  and  the 
nave  aisle  is  a  chantry  vaulted  in  two  bays. 

The  French  burnt  a  large  part  of  Bye  in  1378, 
almost  the  whole  of  it  in  1448,  and  by  the  latter 
calamity  the  town  was  very  badly  crippled. 
Though  no  part  of  the  church  was  actually  left 
in  ruins  (as  at  Winchelsea),  its  repair  went  on 
at  the  slowest  pace.  Another  arch  was  added, 
rather  clumsily,  to  the  damaged  north  arcade  of 
the  chancel,  a  corresponding  arcade  of  three  arches 
with  clustered  pillars  was  built  up  on  the  south. 
At  the  east  end  two  large  new  windows  were 
erected  (the  fourteenth-century  five-light  window 
of  the  north  chapel  had  been  preserved),  and  this 
part  was  strengthened  by  the  erection  of  blocks  of 
masonry  surmounted  by  pinnacles  connected  with 
the  church  by  beautiful  pierced  flying  buttresses. 
Other  great  windows  were  erected  in  the  transepts  ; 
the  central  tower  was  rebuilt  from  the  ground, 
using  old  arches  west  and  north ;  there  are  square- 
headed  windows  and  a  very  low  spire,  now  sur- 
mounted by  a  vane  dated  1703.  The  nave  aisles 
had  practically  to  be  rebuilt,  and  new  timber  roofs 
to  be  supplied  throughout  the  church. 

The  greater  part  of  these  extensive  repairs  was 
finished  before  the  Churchwardens'  Accounts  begin 
in  1513,  but  they  were  by  no  means  altogether 
complete,  and  the  following,  among  other  entries, 
refer  to  the  fabric  itself : — 

£    s.   d. 
1513    Paid  to  a  plumber  for  the  new  healing 

with  lead  of  Saint  Clere's  chancel      ...     0    8    0 
Paid  to  Gregory  Wakhand,  mason,  for 
4  bu.  lime,  the  making  of  2  corbells, 
the  dottyng,   and  for  the  making  of 
the  wall  there      ... 0    5    2 


H ami  all. 


RYE   CHURCH  :     SOUTH-EAST   AND   SOUTH    SIDE. 


To  face  p.  388. 


RYE  389 

s.  a. 

1513  4  loads  sand  to  St.  Clere's  chancel         ...  0    0    6 
Nails  to  the  roof  there       006 

1514  Lead  bought  in  London  for  the  church  531 

1515  For  working  upon  the  frame  of  the  clock 

and  dial  in  the  steeple 0    2    0 

The  man  who  made  the  clockwork  and 

dial  268 

0 

(The  clock  has  figures  on  the  north  side  to  strike 
the  hours,  and  the  long  pendulum  swings  inside  the 
church.) 

£    a.  d. 
1524    The  shingellers  for  laying  shingles  and 

mending  the  steeple       1  10    4 

1538  Paid  for  glassing  the  new  window  in  the 

church       1  14  11 

1539  Paid  for  charge  when  the   south  aisle 

was  taken  down 3  10    0 

1543  Timber  work  to  the  roof  of  the  north 

aisle  600 

1544  Plaster  of  Paris,  to  mend  the  pillars  in 

the  church  012 

1547    Paid  for  one  load  of  tiles,  to  lay  on  Saint 

Peter's  aisle          0  10    4 

100  great  English  bricks,  and  100  Flemish 
bricks        018 

The  last-mentioned  seem  to  have  been  for  the 
half-arch  by  which  a  buttress  in  the  south-east 
corner  is  joined  to  the  church ;  it  helps  to  support 
a  small  octagonal  turret. 

In  1522  we  get  a  rather  interesting  reference  to 
the  religious  play :  "  Paid  for  a  coate  made,  when 
the  Resurrection  was  played,  for  him  that  in 
playing  represented  the  part  of  Almighty  God 
£0  Is.  Od."  (The  amount  is  decidedly  disappointing.) 
In  1520  ratsbane  for  the  church  cost  fivepence,  and 
in  1547  one  shilling  and  eightpence  was  laid  out 


390  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

in  "  mending  the  cross  which  is  borne  about  every 
day." 

In  January,  1559,  there  were  great  rejoicings  over 
Elizabeth's  accession,  and  we  find  the  following 
entry : — 

s.   d. 
Paid,  when  the  queen  was  proclaimed,  to  make 

the  clerks'  drink       1     0 

There  is  a  beautiful  seventeenth-century  ma- 
hogany communion  table  carved  with  cherubs 
and  flowers.  Within  the  altar  rails  is  a  brass  of 
1607  :— 

"  Loe!    Thomas  Hamon  here  interr'd  doth  lie  ; 
Thrice  burgess  for  the  Parliament  elected, 
Six  times,  by  freemen's  choice,  made  mayor  of  Rye. 
And  captain,  long  time,  of  the  band  selected. 
Whose  prudent  courage,  justice,  gravity, 
Deserve  a  monument  of  memory." 

The  Churchwardens'  Accounts  mention  several 
gifts  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Richard,  and  in  1534 
having  spent  sevenpence  on  a  pottle  of  malmsey 
and  pennerd  of  cake  for  the  clerks  at  Ascension 
and  eightpence  for  similar,  but  not  quite  identical, 
refreshments  at  Whitsuntide,  they  felt  able  to 
contribute  a  shilling  to  the  Heremites,  in  other 
words  the  Austin  Friars.  In  Conduit  Hill  may 
still  be  seen  their  chapel,  which  after  having 
served  all  kinds  of  purposes,  including  the  storage 
of  planks,  hops,  and  other  merchandise,  and 
Salvation  Army  barracks,  has  now  been  acquired 
for  miscellaneous  Church  uses.  It  seems  to  be 
late  fourteenth-century  work,  and  the  three-light 
windows  on  the  south  have  Flamboyant  tracery, 
proving  a  more  peaceful  intercourse  with  France 
than  that  so  often  experienced  by  Rye.  Flamboy- 


RYE  391 

ant  work  is  rare  indeed  in  England,  but  there 
is  an  excellent  example  in  the  beautiful  extension 
to  his  family  chapel  in  Brede  church  which  was 
made  by  Sir  Goddard  Oxenbridge,  who  died  in 
1537,  and  is  fabled  to  have  been  a  devourer  of 
children  and  proof  against  all  metal  weapons, 
though  eventually  killed  with  a  wooden  saw  by 
indignant  neighbours  who  had  taken  the  pre- 
caution to  make  him  drunk.  The  Austin  Monastery 
also  contains  a  fine  fifteenth-century  oak-framed 
door  with  carved  spandrels  that  came  from  an 
old  house  on  the  site  of  Lloyds'  Bank,  probably 
rebuilt  soon  after  1448. 

Just  south  of  the  churchyard  is  a  small  mediaeval 
hall  with  chambers  below;  it  is  a  rubble  stone 
building  originally  of  the  fourteenth  century,  but 
altered  in  the  fifteenth,  and  apparently  transformed 
during  the  sixteenth  century,  when  a  large  fire- 
place was  formed,  lighted  by  one  of  the  original 
windows  of  the  lower  portion.  A  piece  of  nail- 
head  ornament  is  probably  twelfth-century  work, 
but  it  is  not  in  its  original  position.  It  evidently 
formed  part  of  a  fairly  extensive  range  of  buildings 
whose  original  purpose  is  unknown.  It  is  called 
the  Carmelite  Friary,  but  the  only  evidence  for  the 
existence  of  the  Order  in  Rye  is  a  blundered  abstract 
of  the  will  of  Thomas  Sackville  (1432)  in  Vetusta 
Monumenta;  the  legacy  was  really  for  the 
Carmelites  of  Losseiiham  in  Kent. 

Rye  has  a  great  many  old  timber-framed  houses, 
but  in  nearly  every  case  their  fronts  have  been 
altered.  The  most  interesting  of  all,  the  Flushing 
Inn,  is  hopelessly  modernised  outside,  but  the  hall 
and  adjacent  room  display  magnificent  old  oak 
work — the  beams  of  the  ceiling  moulded  and  close 
together,  two  little  doorways  having  carved  span- 


392  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

drels  with  foliage  and  a  head  caricature.  Under- 
neath are  tunnel- vaulted  stone  cellars  supported  by 
ribs,  but  by  far  the  most  interesting  feature  is 
a  fresco  in  imitation  of  tapestry  that  covers  the 
whole  of  one  wall  and  dates,  probably  with  the 
rest  of  the  house,  from  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. 
The  groundwork  is  of  conventional  foliage,  with 
numerous  roses  and  a  pomegranate  or  two,  strange 
animals  and  birds  are  interspersed  and  inscriptions 
running  diagonally  across  read  "soli  deo  honor" 
Above  is  a  frieze  with  coats  of  arms,  and  little  nude 
figures  hold  scrolls  with  the  Magnificat  in  Tyndale's 
version,  1525,  slightly  varied.  In  the  steep  and 
narrow  lane  called  Mermaid  Street  is  the  famous 
Mermaid  Inn,  surrounding  a  little  court,  a  Tudor 
building,  which  is  framed  of  very  massive  timbers 
and  has  some  linen  panelling.  One  fireplace  with 
a  long  oak  beam  is  remarkable  for  its  great  width, 
others  are  of  stone  and  display  the  conventional 
Tudor  rose  within  diamonds  and  circles. 

When  these  and  many  other  Tudor  timber-and- 
plaster  buildings  were  comparatively  new,  there 
was  born  at  Rye  in  1579  John  Fletcher,  whose 
father,  the  rector,  was  afterwards  Bishop  of 
London,  but  he  married  a  second  wife,  a  thing  the 
Virgin  Queen  could  not  and  would  not  tolerate,  and 
he  was  accordingly  suspended.  Fletcher's  success 
as  a  dramatist,  his  name  for  ever  closely  associated 
with  that  of  Francis  Beaumont,  was  very  great, 
though  it  has  little  to  do  with  Rye.  The  following 
passage  however  from  The  Faithful  Shepherdess 
slightly  suggests  the  country  just  north  of  the 
town — 

"  Here  be  woods  as  green 
As  any,  air  likewise  as  fresh  and  sweet 
As  where  smooth  Zephyrus  plays  on  the  fleet 


RYE  393 

Face  of  the  curled  stream,  with  flow'rs  as  many 
As  the  young  Spring  gives,  and  choice  as  any  ; 
Here  be  all  new  delights,  cool  streams  and  wells, 
Arbours  o'ergrow  with  woodbine  ;  caves  and  dells  ; 
Chuse  where  thou  wilt,  while  I  sit  by  and  sing, 
Or  gather  rushes,  to  make  many  a  ring 
For  thy  long  fingers  ;  tell  thee  tales  of  love, 
How  the  pale  Phoebe,  hunting  in  a  grove, 
First  saw  the  boy  Endymion,  from  whose  eyes 
She  took  eternal  fire  that  never  dies  ; 
How  she  conveyed  him  softly,  in  a  sleep 
His  temples  bound  with  poppy,  to  the  steep 
Head  of  old  Latmos,  where  she  stoops  each  night, 
Gilding  the  mountain  with  her  brother's  light, 
To  kiss  her  sweetest." 


In  1591  the  Mayor  of  Rye  complained  "  now  of 
late  a  smale  secte  of  purytanes,  more  holy  in  shewe 
than  in  dede,  is  sprong  up  amongst  us."  The  most 
famous  of  Rye  Puritan  preachers  was  the  versatile 
Samuel  Jeake  (1623-1690),  of  Huguenot  extraction, 
for  a  considerable  body  of  French  refugees  settled 
in  Rye  and  for  a  time  had  a  chapel  of  their  own. 
He  is  most  favourably  known  for  his  splendid 
work  on  the  charters  of  the  Ports,  he  was  also  an 
attorney  and  a  student  of  astrology.  In  Mermaid 
Street  is  a  rubble  building  with  an  astrological 
inscription  which  he  erected  in  1689.  His  opinion 
of  his  fellow-Dissenters  was  rather  a  mixed  one  : 
"  They  may  be  called  Babell  from  the  differences 
that  have  happened  among  the  master  builders  ; " 
"  what  difference  between  Lord  Bishops  and  Lordly 
Presbyters  ? "  His  rector  sought  to  temper  his 
schismatic  zeal,  but  without  the  very  slightest 
apparent  result.  "The  insolence,"  wrote  his 
reverence,  "of  some  of  ye  zealots  (I  believe  animated 
by  you  to  ye  contempt  of  all  good  order  and 


394  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

government)  ...  I  am  commanded  to  persist 
in  case  you  desist  not."  In  1654  the  Grand 
Inquest  of  Rye  under  Puritan  influence  had 
presented  three  boys  merely  for  sliding  on  the 
Sabbath. 

The  old  Grammar  School  has  a  fine  seventeenth- 
century  facade  of  thin  brick  with  pilasters  and 
cornice,  recently  preserved  from  demolition  by  a 
public-spirited  local  syndicate.  The  Town  Hall, 
rebuilt  about  1742,  is  a  good  example  of  the  work 
of  that  period,  the  lower  part  open  on  arches 
with  a  panelled  court-room  above,  an  open 
square  turret  of  wood  surmounting  the  roof. 
Here  are  preserved  the  magnificent  maces  be- 
longing to  the  port,  the  old  pillory,  gibbet,  and 
fire-engine  (p.  231),  and  the  original  engagement 
of  Rye  to  support  the  Commonwealth,  with  many 
other  objects  and  documents  connected  with  the 
history  of  the  town.  Unlike  the  rest  of  Sussex, 
Rye  maintains  the  Kentish  custom  of  gavelkind — 
that  is,  all  the  brothers  share  the  paternal  acres 
if  their  father  dies  without  making  a  will. 

One  of  the  Roxburghe  Ballads  gives  us  a 
delightful  episode  in  the  history  of  the  town. 
It  is  entitled,  "  The  True  Mayde  of  the  South ;  or 
a  rare  example  of  a  Mayde  dwelling  at  Rie,  in 
Sussex,  who,  for  the  love  of  a  young  man  of 
Lestershire,  went  beyond  sea  in  the  habit  of  a 
page,  and  after,  to  their  hearts'  content,  were 
both  marry ed  at  Magrum,  in  Germany,  and  now 
dwelling  at  Rie  aforesaid. 

11  Within  the  haven  toune  of  Rye, 

That  stands  in  Sussex  faire, 
There  dwelt  a  maide,  whose  constancie 
Transeendeth  all  compare. 


RYE  395 

This  turtle  dove 

Did  dearly  love 
A  youth,  who  did  appeare, 

In  minde  and  face 

To  be  the  grace 
And  pride  of  Lester-shire. 

This  young  man,  with  a  noble  peere, 

Who  lik't  his  service  well, 
Went  from  his  native  Lester-shire 
In  Sussex  for  to  dwell. 

Where  living  nye 

The  toune  of  Bye, 
This  pretty  mayde  did  heare 

Of  his  good  parts, 

Who,  by  deserts, 
Was  pride  of  Lester-shire. 

For  coming  once  into  that  toune, 

It  was  at  first  his  chance 
To  meet  with  her,  whose  brave  renowne 
All  Sussex  did  advance. 

And  she  likewise, 

In  his  faire  eyes, 
When  once  she  came  him  neere, 

Did  plainly  see 

That  none  but  he 
Was  pride  of  Lester-shire.  .  .  . 

It  was  his  hap  that  time  to  goe, 

To  travell  with  his  lord 
Which  to  his  heart  did  breed  much  woe 
Yet  could  he  not  afford 

A  remedy 

To's  misery. 
But  needs  he  must  leave  here, 

His  Madge,  behinde  ; 

Who  griev'd  in  minde 
For  the  pride  of  JLester-shire. 


306  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

She  being  then  bereaved  cleane 
Of  hope,  yet  did  invent, 

By  her  rare  policy,  a  meane 
To  worke  her  heart's  content. 
In  garments  strange 
She  straight  did  change 

Herself  rejecting  feare, 
To  goe  with  him 
Whom  she  did  deeme 

The  pride  of  Lester-shire. 

And  in  the  habit  of  a  page 
She  did  entreat  his  lord, 
That,  being  a  boy  of  tender  age, 
He  would  his  grace  afford, 

That  he  might  goe 

Service  to  show 
To  him  both  far  and  neere, 

Who  little  thought 

What  love  she  ought 
To  the  pride  of  Lester-shire.  .  .  . 

For  having  travelled  six  weekes, 

Unknowne  unto  her  lover, 
With  rosie  blushes  in  her  cheekes, 
Her  minde  she  did  discover. 
'See  here,'  quoth  she, 
'  One  that  for  thee 
Hath  left  her  parents  deare. 
Poor  Margery, 
The  mayde  of  Rie 
I  am.     Behold  me  here.' 


When  Anthony  did  heare  this  worde, 

His  heart  with  joy  did  leape. 
He  went  unto  this  noble  lorde, 
To  whom  he  did  repeat 
This  wonderfull  thing, 
Which  straight  did  bring 


RYE  397 


Amazement  to  him  there. 

*  Of  such  a  page 

In  any  age,' 
Quoth  he,   '  I  did  not  heare.' 


At  Magrum,  then,  in  Germany, 

Their  lord  did  see  them  marryed ; 
From  whence,  unto  the  toune  of  Bie 
In  England,  were  they  carried. 
Where  now  they  dwell, 
Beloved  well 

Of  neighbours  far  and  neare. 
Sweet  Margery 
Loves  Anthony, 
The  pride  of  Lester-shire. 


You  maydes  and  young  men  warning  take 

By  these  two  lovers  kinde, 
Who  ever  you  your  choyce  doe  make, 
To  them  be  true  in  minde. 

For  perfect  love 

Comes  from  above, 
As  may  by  this  appeare, 

Which  came  to  passe, 

By  Sussex  lasse, 
And  the  lad  of  Lester-shire." 


The  present  port  of  Rye  is  formed  by  the  common 
estuary  of  the  three  rivers,  Rother,  Brede,  and 
Tillingham  ;  the  entrance  is  protected  by  a  pier 
of  concrete  and  wood  one  side  and  a  shingle  bank 
the  other,  black  and  white  buoys  mark  the  way 
out  to  sea.  The  village  of  Rye  Harbour  is  entirely 
built  on  the  shingle,  there  are  a  few  tarred  build- 
ings, a  modern  stone  church  and  the  usual  features 
of  a  small  Sussex  port.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
river  is  Camber,  where  are  golf-links  and  a  light 


398  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

railway  whose  trains  traverse  the  flats  at  a 
dignified  speed  connects  it  with  Rye. 

It  was  perhaps  to  quiet  his  conscience  for  the 
way  in  which  he  had  gained  so  much  of  his  estate 
that  shortly  after  1532  Sir  John  Guldeford  (p.  384) 
built  a  church  on  the  reclaimed  land,  instituting 
the  parish  called  after  his  family  East  Guldeford. 
Prominent  in  the  church  are  the  Guldeford  arms. 
It  is  an  interesting  building  of  thin  red  and  yellow 
brick,  well  buttressed,  the  east  window  has  four 
lights,  the  three  on  either  side  are  three-light,  and 
all  have  pointed  arches,  the  original  tracery  was 
formed  simply  by  the  mullions  intersecting,  the 
whole  of  brick.  A  blocked  arch  at  the  west  end 
shows  that  something  further  was  built  or  pro- 
jected. There  is  a  large  piscina  with  shelf,  the 
square  black  marble  font  has  arcading  and  what 
seem  to  have  been  Tudor  roses  ;  at  the  east  end  are 
corbels  carved  with  angels  holding  shields.  While 
another  Tudor  brick  Sussex  church,  that  of  Twine- 
ham,  simply  continues  the  tradition  of  the  late 
Perpendicular  style,  the  large  pointed  windows 
of  Guldeford  seem  to  be  slightly  influenced  by 
the  contemporary  buildings  of  France. 

Low  sandstone  hills  rise  just  north  of  Bye,  some 
four  hundred  yards  of  marsh  separates  their  base 
from  the  Land  Gate.  On  them  is  Playden,  where 
was  the  old  hospital  of  St.  Bartholomew,  whose 
chaplain  or  custos  it  is  provided  in  the  Customal 
shall  be  nominated  by  the  mayor  and  jurats. 
Playden  Church  has  been  curiously  dislocated  by 
settlements.  The  north  aisle  has  a  little  window 
and  a  door  of  Norman  date  ;  the  arcades  are  Tran- 
sition to  Early  English,  rather  tall  pillars  octagonal 
and  round,  caps  and  arches  are  moulded,  and  the 
latter  are  round  except  the  two  westmost,  which 


RYE  399 

are  pointed.  The  central  tower  also  has  aisles 
and  is  Early  English,  the  east  and  west  arches  are 
moulded,  the  others  are  much  plainer ;  the  tower 
has  narrow  lancets  and  is  surmounted  by  a  tall 
shingled  spire.  A  wooden  stair  over  the  quire 
stalls  leads  up  to  the  bells.  There  is  a  fine  screen 
dating  from  about  1300  with  banded  shafts,  ornate 
tracery,  and  a  heavy  beam  above.  The  little  chancel 
seems  to  date  from  after  1500,  and  there  is  a  screen 
to  match. 

The  most  interesting  excursion  from  Rye  is  by 
steamer  up  the  Rother  to  Bodiam  Castle  (the 
i  pronounced  as  j)9  through  delightfully  restful 
country,  where  sheep  and  cattle  pasture  in  the 
meadows.  For  a  few  miles  to  the  wooden  bridge 
shaded  by  trees  that  appears  in  the  photograph  (p. 
382),  the  river  flows  across  the  flats  not  far  from 
the  border  of  Kent,  then  is  entered  its  broad  valley 
among  the  low  hills.  The  castle  was  built  in 
1386  by  Sir  Edward  Dalyngruge,  who  had  served 
in  earlier  years  at  Cressy  and  Poictiers,  and  it  is 
exceedingly  French  in  character.  It  stands  on 
the  hill-side  in  a  large  artificial  tank  formed 
partly  by  excavating  and  partly  by  embanking, 
so  that  its  waters  could  easily  have  been  drained 
off  by  an  enemy.  The  building  of  local  sand- 
stone is  square,  quite  small,  and  very  irregular, 
with  eight  towers,  all  battlemented  and  provided 
with  stair  turrets ;  those  at  the  corners  are  round, 
those  in  the  centre  of  each  side  are  rectangular; 
they  rise  high  above  the  curtain  and  have  a  most 
picturesque  effect.  The  north  and  south  towers 
formed  entrances,  and  they  have  quite  perfect 
machicolated  parapets  and  vaulted  gateways  with 
round  holes  for  bosses,  otherwise  the  towers  had 
wooden  floors  in  four  stages.  A  causeway  leads 


400  THE  SUSSEX  COAST 

to  the  north  gateway,  which  has  a  broad  flat 
arch  and  portcullis  grooves;  on  shields  are  the 
arms  of  the  Bodiam  family,  who  held  the  manor 
under  the  Earls  of  Eu,  1066-1250,  of  the 
Wardeux  family,  who  held  the  place  1250-1370, 
and  of  the  Dalyngruges,  one  of  whom,  the 
builder,  married  the  Wardeux  heiress.  Nearly  all 
the  outer  windows  are  small  lancets,  but  the  east 
window  of  the  chapel  has  three  large  ones  under 
a  single  arch.  Within  is  a  single  courtyard  sur- 
rounded by  buildings  of  two  stories,  with  large 
square-headed  mullioned  windows.  The  chapel, 
hall,  and  kitchen  extended  through  both  stories, 
and  their  arrangements  are  singularly  well  pre- 
served. Most  of  the  rooms  had  fireplaces,  with 
backs  built  of  tiles,  and  the  octagonal  chimneys 
are  treated  like  pillars.  The  general  air  of  com- 
fort is  very  remarkable  considering  the  early 
date,  and  the  castle  is  a  very  interesting  con- 
necting link  between  such  a  mere  stronghold  as 
Pevensey  and  such  a  slightly  fortified  palace  as 
Herstmonceux. 

Thomas  Fuller,  in  his  History  of  the  Worthies 
of  England,  was  thinking  particularly  of  arch- 
bishops cradled  in  the  different  counties,  but  he 
would  doubtless  have  wished  his  words  to  be 
given  a  very  much  wider  application  when  he 
remarked — 

"MANY    SHIRES    HAVE    DONE    WORTHILY,    BUT 
SUSSEX    SURMOUNTETH    THEM    ALL." 


INDEX. 

Place    in  Sussex  which  being  beyond   the   scope   of  the  book  are 
merely  referred  to  are  in  brackets.) 


ADELIZA,  QUEEN,  25,  107 
Adur,  Eiver,  107,  146,  160 
JEdilwalch,  King,  35 
JElla  (Ella),  22,  51,  72 
^thelstan,  328 
^Ethelwealh,  66, 68 
yEthelwulf  (father  of  Alfred), 
Ainsworth,  Harrison,  202 
Alard  family,  371 
Albini,  William  of,  25,  108 
(Aldingbourne,  84) 
Aldrington,  160, 161 
Alfrage,  358 
Alfred  the  Great,  104 
Alfriston,  55,  272-275 
(Amberley,  69, 118) 
Anchorites,  169,  228 
Anderida,  51,  292-295 
Anne  of  Cleves,  240, 241 
Anselm,  337 
Appledram,  33,  49 
Aqueduct,  21 
Aquila,  Gilbert  de,  298 
Armada,  Spanish,  18, 109,  303 
Arun,  Eiver,  104-106,  116, 118 
Arundel,  49,  104-116 
Arundel,  Bishop,  34 
Ascham,  Roger,  77 
Ashburnham,  325 
Asten,  River,  328, 329 
Atheringtou,  101 


Austin  Friars,  390 
Axon,  W.  E.  A.,  347 

BALGAB,  262 
Balsdean,  203 
Bardolf,  277 
146      Barnham,  99, 100 

Barry,  Sir  Charles,  193 
Barton  (or  Manor)  Farm,  83 
Battle,  348-359 
Bayeux  Tapestry,  59,  333,  349 
Beachy  Head,  278,  279, 280,  283 
Beau  Brummel,  188 
Becket,  63,  83,  199,  245,  335 
Beddingham,  259,  260 
Bede,  57,  66,  67 
Beeding,  Upper,  154 
Belle  Tout,  279 
Bellingham  family,  171 
Belloc,  H.,  160,  207, 
Bernard!,  34 
Bersted,  87 
Bevis,  104-106 
Bexhill,  325-328 
Birdham,  81 
Birling  Gap,  277,  279 
Bishopstone,  223,  268-270 
Blaauw,  185 
Black,  William,  205 
Black  Rock,  201 
Blake,  William,  38,  82,  95-99 
26  <* 


402 


INDEX 


Blatchington,  East,  268 

Blatchington,  West,  172, 173 

Bloomfield,  Robert,  203 

Bodiam,  399,  400 

Bognor,  86-88 

Boorde,  Andrew,  308,  309 

Booth  Collection  of  Birds,  191, 

281 

Bosham,  50,  57-63, 105 
Botolph,  St.,  133,  155 
Bourdillon,  F.  W.,  281 
Bowles,  W.  L.,  303 
Bowyer,  85 
(Boxgrove,  37,  111) 
Bracklesham,  49,  60,  75 
Bramber,  107, 151-154 
Braose,  House  of,  107,  109,  151- 

152 

Brede,  River,  377,  384 
(Brede  Village,  391) 
Brighton,  110, 161, 174-205 
Broadwater,  139, 140 
Brodhull,  339 
Browne,  Anthony,  356 
Bruton,  85 
Bulvarhythe,  328 
Burghal  Hidage,  116,  227 
Burne-Jones,  204 
Burpham,  116-118, 147 
Burrell  MSS.,  385 
Burrows,  Prof.,  333 
Burton,  Dr.  John,  185 
Butterfield,  328 
Byng,G.,281 
Byron,  90,  344 

CABUBN,  MT.,  244 
Caen,  27, 110 
Csesar,  322 

Caistor  St.  Edmund,  20 
Cakehain,  75 
Camber,  375,  397 
Camden,   24,   33,  108,   109,  149, 
160, 163,  226,  314,  332,  348,  385 
Campbell,  Thomas,  346 
Campion  family,  221,  222 


Carmelites,  154 
Caroline,  Queen,  144 
Caryll,  John,  168 
CASTLES— 

Norman — Arundel,  106 
Chichester,  38 
Hastings,  333 
Lewes,  229 
Pevensey,  298 

lUh  Cent.—  Bodiam,  399 

15th  Cent. — Herstmonceuz,  312 

16th  Cent.— Camber,  375 
Cathedral,  Chichester,  26-35,  45, 

46 

Cavis-Brown,  J.,  73 
Cawley,  William,  42 
CeadwaUa,  King,  35 
Celts,  20 

Chain  Pier,  Brighton,  197 
Chanctonbury  Ring,  141, 149, 150, 

280 

Charles  II.,  54,  323 
Cheynell,  F.,  199 
Chichester,  17-49,  63,  64,  72, 107, 

113, 117, 135 

Ohichester  Harbour,  48,  49 
Chichester,  Plan  of  City,  19 
(Chiddingly,  128) 
Chidham,  55,  56 
ChiUingworth,  199 
Christopherson,  Bp,,  242,  243 
Chronicle,  Anglo-Saxon,  22,  27  , 

283,  295,  332 
Chronicle  of  Battle  Abbey,  297, 

351-353,  357 
Church  Norton,  69 
Cinque  Ports,  177,  296,  338-341, 

378 

Cissa,  22,  23, 142 
Cissbury,  141, 142 
Clarendon,  137 
Clarke,  Somers,  193 
Claudia,  22 
Clayton,  222,  223 
Clement,  St.,  342 
Climping,  101-103 


INDEX 


403 


Cluny,  232,  235 

Cnut,  58 

(Gockfield,  Cuckfield,  37) 

Gogidubnus,  22 

Colchester,  20 

CoUins,  18,  40,  43,  44,  90 

Cooke,  A.  S.,  61 

Coombes,  155, 156 

Common  Field,  85 

Congreve,  278 

Constantino  the  Great,  133, 171 

Count  of  the  Saxon  Shore,  338 

(Cowdray,  356) 

Cowper,  88,  93-95,  188 

Crocker,  Charles,  46 

Cromwell,  39 

Crowhurst,  329 

Crowland,  111 

Crumbles,  282 

Crusades,  102,  147, 148,  330,  337 

Crypts,  61,  370 

Cuckmere,  River,  266,  270 

Cudlow,  101,  120 

Curteis  family,  320 

Cuthman,  St.,  146, 147,  214 

Cymen,  22 

Cymenes-ora,  72 

Cyriac,  St.,  40 

DACBES,  314-316 

Daily  News,  Sussex,  278 

Dallaway,  72 

(Dallington,  128) 

Dalyngruge,  399,  400 

Danes,  23-25,  227 

Danny,  220,  221 

Darby,  Parson,  278 

Dean,  East,  277 

Dean,  West,  270 

Dear,  Martha,  40 

De  Foe,  53, 153, 163, 164, 167, 184, 

226,  281,  314,  341,  375,  386 
De  la  Warr  family,  140,  327 
Dell  Quay,  49,  63 
Denis,  St.,  332 
Penton,  259 


Devonshire,  Dukes  of,  282,  303 

Dicul  (Celtic  monk),  58 

Dog  whipping,  374 

Dominicans,  38,  372 

Donnington,  49 

Downs,  18,  23,  51,  65,  76, 140-142, 

149-151,  157,  170-173,  202,  203, 

206-224,  230,  237,  271, 273,  276, 

280,  282 

Dramatic  Method  of  Teaching,  145 
Drayton,  Michael,  104,  105,  160, 

323 

Drogo,  262 
Dudeney,  John,  218 
Dudley,  Lord,  192 
Dugdale,  35,  36 
Dunstall,  John,  47 
Dunstan,  St.,  322 
Dunvan,  Paul,  189,  228 
Duppa,  Brian,  310 
Durnford,  Bishop,  48,  319 
Dyke,  Devil's,  213-215 

EADMEB,  337 

Eappa,  100 

Earnley,  75 

(Eartham,  88) 

Earthworks,  23,  24,  71,  106,  141, 

150,  151,  201,  215, 220,  227,  229. 

251,  266,  279,  293,  368,  399 
Eastbourne,  282-286 
Edburton,  215,  216 
Eddius,  66-68 

Edward  the  Confessor,  84,  147 
Edward  the  Martyr,  88 
Edward  I.,  62,  65,  162,  230,  237, 

364,  365 
Edward  III.,  162,  299,  330,  335, 

355 

Edward  IV.,  36 
Edward  VI.,  392 
Edward  VII.,  199 
Edwy,  822 

Egerton,  J.  C.,  209,  210 
Elizabeth,  18,  39,  325,  837,  373, 

390 


404 


INDEX 


Emerson,  72 

Ems,  River,  51 

Eocene  Period,  60,  71 

Erin,  River,  74 

Eu,  House  of,  107,  311,  334,  336, 

337 

Evans,  A.  A.,  278,  304 
Evelyn,  John,  244,  373 
Exceat,  270 
Exeter,  60 

Fabian  Chronicle,  227 

Fagg  family,  88, 151 

Fairies,  95,  212 

Fairlight,  360-362 

Fall  of  Cathedral  spire,  45 

Falmer,  224 

Fecamp  Abbey,  134, 147, 152,  333, 

337,  383 

Felpham,  82,  88-99 
Ferring,  128-130 
Flaxman,  43,  88 
Fienes  family,  312-314 
Fig-trees,  134 
Fishbourne,  63 
Fitzalan  family,  52,  108,  111,  112, 

230 

Fitz-Osbern,W.,297 
Fleet,  0.,  46 
Flemings,  189 
Fletcher,  392 
Flushing  Inn,  Rye,  392 
Folkington,  288 
Ford,  119 

Forest  Ridge,  329,  333,360 
Foxe,  John,  242 
Franciscans,  38,  368 
Freeman,  Prof.,  348,  356 
Friston,  276,  277 
Fulking,  216 
Funtington,  128 

GALE,  WALTER,  195 
Galley  Hill,  329 
Gavelkind,  394 
George,  St.,  330 


George  IV.,  144,  188, 189 
Germanicus,  57 
Gibbon,  88,  89,  95,  167 
Gilbert    of    Sancto    Leophardo, 

Bishop,  30 
Gilds,  35, 136 
Giraldus  Cambrensis,  350 
Godwin,  Earl,  58,  59 
Goffe  family,  224 
(Goodwood,  23) 
Goring,  130,  131 
Goring  family,  150,  151,  220 
Gough,  Sir  Harry,  149 
Gough,  Richard,  23,  191,  375 
Gounter,  Col.,  54, 183 
Grestein  Abbey,  289 
Grover,  John,  194 
Guestling,  Court  of,  339 
Guestling  Village,  362 
Guldeford,  384,  385,  398 
Gunn,  Martha,  183 

HALIFAX,  LORD,  52,  53 
Hall's  Chronicle,  177,  300-303 
Hamo  of  Offyngton,  371 
Hampnett,  West,  48 
Hangleton,  171,  172 
Harcourt,  Daniel,  62 
(Hardham,  118) 
Hare  family,  316-319 
Harold,  52,  57,  59,  350 
Harry,  Mt.,  225,  237 
Haselrigg,  Puritan  dancer,  32 
Hassell,  Phoebe,  183 
Hastings,  107, 117,  332-340 
Hay,  73 

Hayley,  43,  88-95 
Hayling  Island,  53,  55,  76 
Hearnden,  B.,  195 
(Heathfield,  135) 
Heene,  133 
Heighton,  South,  259 
Helen,  St.,  171 
Hell  Fire  Club,  113,  316 
Hempshares  (Brighton),  19 
(Henfield,  161) 


INDEX 


405 


Henry  I.,  52,  107 

Henry  II.,  21,  333 

Henry  III.,  237,  337,  384 

Henry  IV.,  299 

Henry  VIII.,  56,  305,  335,  375 

Henry  of  Huntingdon,  295 

Herald,  Brighton,  267 

Herbert  of  Bosham,  63 

Herstmonceux,  311-320 

Highdown  Hill,  129 

Hissey,  J.  J.,  210 

(Hoathly,  East,  250) 

(Hoathly,  West,  274) 

Hock  Monday,  24 

Hodgson,  M.,  310 

Holinshed,  18,  22, 66,74,  106, 161, 

178,  226,  293, 308,  309, 322,  324, 

385 

Holland,  W.,  149 
HoUingbury,  201 
Hollington,  347,  348 
Holmes,  0.  W.,  175,  216 
Holloway,  W.,  379 
Hondius,  Jodocus,  35 
Hooe,  325 
Hood,  T.,  359 
Hook,  Theodore,  344 
Horsfield,  18,  136,  194,  241 
Hospitals — 

St.  Mary's,  Chichester,  38,  39, 
44 

St.  James',  Chichester,  40 

Maison  Dieu,  Arundel,  113 
Hotham,  Sir  Richard,  87 
Hove,  184, 198, 199 
Hoveden,  28 
Howards,  108-114,  152 
HuguenotL,  374 
Hunston,  85 
Huntingdon,  93,  94 
Hurdis,  James,  269-270 
(Hurstpierpoint,  222) 
Huskisson,  18,  89 

lOKLBSHAM,  377 

Iford,  246,  247 


Iham,  363 

Iron  Works  of  th    Weald,  321- 

325 
Itchenor,  62,  81 

JACKSON,  T.  G.,  196 

James  I.  (Scotland),  300-303 

Jeake,  373,  393,  394 

Jevington,  287 

Joan  of  Navarre,  303 

John  (King),  152,  162,  333,  340 

Johnson,  Dr.,  43,  183 

Johnston,  P.  M.,  55,  84,  143,  160, 

327 

Jones,  Sir  W.,  318 
Julian,  St.,  169 

KEMP  TOWN,  201 

Kempe,  C.  E.,  201,  204 

Kenealy,  E.  V.,  172 

Kingly  Bottom,  23,  24,  280 

Kingsham,  23 

Kingston  on  the  Downs,  245 

Kingston  by  Sea,  162,  168, 169 

Kingston  under  Sea,  128 

Kipling,  257 

Knights  <*f  St.  John,  143,  144 

Knights  Templars,  143,  218 

Knucker  Hole,  122 

Kynor  Farm,  72 

LAMB,  CHARLES,  345 
Lancing,  156, 157, 166 
Langton,  Bishop,  31 
Laud,  Archbishop,  216 
Lavant,  River,  18,  23,  26 
Lawrence,  Sir  T.,  191 
Leger,  St.,  86 
Leland,  364 

Leonard,  St.,  265,  345,  346,  367 
Lewes,  107, 117, 176,  225-245 
Lewinna,  St.,  262,  263 
Litlington,  271 
Litten  (graveyard),  21 
Littlehampton,  120, 121 
Lifetie  London,  17,  373 


406 


INDEX 


Lobster-traps,  86 

Long  Man  of  Wilmington,  289 

Lovers'  Seat,  361 

Low  side  windows,  55 

Lower,  M.  A.,  144,  240,  244 

Liibeck,  39 

Lullington,  272 

Lumley,  Lord,  54 

Lyminster,  122, 123 

MACDEBMOTT,  K.  H.,  58 

Maitland,  P.  W,,  69,  312 

Maiden  family,  196,  210 

Mailing,  244 

Malone,  Edmund  (1741-1812),  92 

Mandeville,  171 

Manhood,  65-81 

Margaret,  St.,  204 

Market  Cross,  Chichester,  40,  41 

Martial,  22 

Marlipins  (Shoreham),  163 

Marshall,  E.  J.,  196 

Marston,  85 

MarteUo  Towers,  266,  267 

Mary,  Queen,  242 

Matilda,  299 

Meeching,  249 

Mermaid  Inn,  Bye,  392 

Middlesbrough,  365 

Middleton,  100, 101 

Miller's  Tomb,  129 

Milward,  Canon,  137 

Minerva,  22 

Mitford,  Bishop,  36 

Monmouth,  18 

Montagues,  354-356 

Montalembert,  68 

Montgomery,  Roger   of,  25,   26, 

106, 107, 110,  123 
Morley  family,  242 
Mortain,  Count  of,  297 
Mortimer,  J.  H.,  281 
Mouse-traps,  72 
Mowbray  family,  152 
Much  Wenlock,  233 
Mundham,  85 


NASH,  JOHN,  189] 

Naylor,  316 

Neolithic  remains,  23, 141 

Neptune,  22 

Nero,  22 

Neville,  Bishop,  17,  85,  127 

Newhaven,    249-251,    256,    257, 

264 

Nicholas,  St.,  62, 179-181,  304 
Ninfield,  321 

Norfolk,  Dukes  of,  109-114 
(Northiam,  128) 
Norton,  T.,  326 
Nyetimber,  83-85 

ODO,  Abbot  of  Battle,  353,  357 

Odo,  Bishop  of  Bayeux,  297 

Offa,  332 

Olaf,  St.,  24,  25,  40 

Old  Boar,  341 

Oliver,  John,  129 

Osbern,  Bishop,  60 

Osborne,  Thomas,  43 

Ouse,  Biver,  107,  225,  246 

Ovingdean,  201-203 

Owen,  John,  163,  185,  226,  282 

Oxenbridge,  391 

PAGHAM,  22,  26,  66,  72,  73,  82-85 

Paine,  Thomas,  241 

Paisley  Abbey,  108 

Palace  at  Chichester,  37 

Pallant,  26 

Pancras,  St.,  43,  232,  245 

Pantaleon,  St.,  30 

Paris,  Matthew,  332 

Parish,  W.  D.,  211 

Parry,  J.  D.,  187 

Patcham,  200 

Pavilion  at  Brighton,  188-191 

Pearson,  C.,  46,  198 

Pecock,  Beginald,  17 

Pelham  family,  223,  224,  226,  260, 

299,  300,  320,  329,  335 
Pell,  John,  169 
Pett,  363 


INDEX 


407 


Pevensey,  292-810 
Piddinghoe,  248,  249 
Playden,  398,  399 
Polegate,  288 
Pompeii,  20 
Pope,  Alexander,  168 
Porden,  William,  191 
Portinari,  232-234 
Portslade,  161, 170 
Portsmouth,  53,  54,  76 
Portus  Adurni,  160,  161 
Poynings,  217,  218 
Preston  by  Brighton,  199, 200 
Preston,  East,  127, 128 
Pudens,  22 
(Pulborough,  118) 
Pyecombe,  218,  220 

QUAKERS,  218,  241 
Quarr  Abbey,  27 
Quebec,  344 

RACTON,  53-55 

Ralph  Luffa,  Bishop,  27 

Rapes,  25, 51,  107,  117 

Rede,  Bishop,  69, 118 

Regnum,  21 

Reinbold,  Chancellor,  52 

Represser  of  Overmuch  Blaming 

of  the  Clergy,  11 
Richard,  St.,  17,  30,  35,  79,  80, 

134-136,  390 
Richard  I.,  383 
Richard  II.,  299 
Richard,  King  of   the  Romans, 

237,  238 

Richard  Pitzalan,  110,  113 
Richardson,  G.  F.,  198 
Rickman,  Clio,  241,  250 
Robert  of  Belesme,  107 
Robert  of  Gloucester,  349 
(Robertsbridge,  350) 
Robertson,  F.  W.,  194 
Rodmell,  247 
Roedean  School,  202 


Romans  and  Roman  remains,  20- 
22,57,71,133,151,157,158,172, 
277,  292-294 

Romney  Marsh,  363,  384 

Bother,  River,  382,  384  seq. 

Rottingdean,  203-205 

Round,  J.  H.,  52, 348 

Rouse,  James,  36 

Row,  John,  240 

Roxburghe  Ballads,  41,  394 

Rumbold,  St.,  48 

Rumboldswyke,  47,  48 

Runcton,  85 

Ruskin,  217 

Russel,  Dr.,  185,  245 

Rustington,  121, 122, 126, 127 

Rye,  378-399 

Rye  Harbour,  397 

Ryman,  of  Appledram,  33,  49 

Ryves,  Dean,  33,  42 

SACKVILLE,  THOMAS,  326 

Saddlescombe,  218 

Sagas  of  Iceland,  24 

Salvington,  136 

Salzmann,  F.  L.,  293 

Sampson,  John,  96 

Sands,  H.,  382 

Saxons,  22,  23, 129,  130,  294,  295 

348 

Scotland,  108,  300,  371 
Scott,  Sir  Gilbert,  45, 196, 321 
Seaford,  261-268 
Seez,  110 
Senna  II.,  Bishop,  21,  28,  37, 176, 

223 

Selden,  104,  136-138,  160 
Selsey,  26,  66-73,  91 
(Selsfield,  161) 
Senlac,  348 
Seven  Sisters,  266, 276 
Shaftesbury,  88 
Shakespeare,  92 
Shelburne,  N.  S.,  231, 364,  365 
Shelley  family,  200 
Shepway,  339 


408 


INDEX 


Sherborne,  111 

Sherburne,  Bishop,  17,  34,  35,  37, 

65,  75-79,  85 
Sherlock,  Dean,  44 
(Shipley,  143) 
Shirley  family,  150 
Shore,  T.  W.,203 
Shoreham,  153, 159-168 
Shrewsbury  Abbey,  107 
Sidlesham,  64,  73,  74 
Simeon  of  Durham,  332 
Simon  de  Montfort,  237-239,  299 
(Slaugham,  242) 
Slavs,  203 
Sluys,  340 

Smith,  Charlotte,  100,  101,  208 
Smith,  Horace  (author  of  Brani- 

bletye),  197 
Smugglers,  166-168 
Smyth,  John,  58 
Sompting,  142-145 
Sops  and  Ale,  285 
Southeare,  247 
Bouthover,  236,  240,  241 
Southwiok,  169,  170 
Speed,  John,  35,  50,  51 
Spenser,  Edmund,  326 
Spershott,  43 
St.  Leonards,  345-347 
St.  Mah<5,  340 
Standard  Hill,  321 
Stane  Street,  21, 118 
Stanmer,  201 
Stansted,  53,  54 
Stapley  family,  200,  252 
Steine  (Brighton),  189,  193 
Stephen,  King,  35,  299 
Sterling,  John,  319 
Steyning,  146-149 
Stockbridge,  23,  49 
(Stoke,  West,  23) 

tonewall  Farm,  63 
Storey,  Bishop,  41 
Stuart  origin,  108 
Sussex  on  the  Delaware,  290,  291 
Swanbourne  Lake,  115, 116 


Swinburne,  96,  280 
Sydney,  Sir  Philip,  171 

TABBING,  NEVILLE,  259 
Tarring,  West,  127, 133-136 
Tattersall,  Nicholas,  182,  183 
Tattershall,  313 
Taylor,  John,  130 
Telscombe,  258,  259 
Temple,  at  Chichester,  22 
Temple,  at  Chanctonbury,  150 
Tennyson,  63 
Thackeray,  369 
Thomas,  286,  288 
Thorney  Island,  55 
Thunderbarrow  Hill,  215 
Thurlow,  Lord,  349 
Tierney,  M.A.,  115 
Tillingham,  River,  384 
Tipper,  250,  251 
Toat  Copse,  84 
Tortington,  118,  119 
Troarn,  85 
Truleigh  Hill,  215 
Turner,  Thomas,  185,  250-256 
(Twineham,  55,  398) 
Twyne,  Thomas,  240 

UDIMOBE,  365,  376 
Underyng  Harbour,  72 
Unwin,  Rev.  W.,  93, 188 

VANDALIA  (wreck),  162 
Verral,  C.,  267 
Vespasian,  63 

Vicars'  Hall,  Chichester,  36 
Vicars,  T.  A.,  37 
Vinogradofi,  Prof.,  204 

WALCOTT,  MACKENZIE,  36 
Waller,  Sir  W.,  42,  109 
Wallers  Haven,  292 
Walls  of  towns,  20,  21,  179,  231, 

366,  367,  383 

Walpole,  Horace,  167,  315 
Walpole,  Robert,  317 


INDEX 


409 


Walsingham,  366 

Walter  de  Lucy,  353 

Wannock,  287 

Warburton,  John,  184 

Warden*  family,  400 

Warenne,    House    of,    107,    177, 

227 

Warlewaste,  Bishop,  60 
Wartling,  320 
Waterford,  62 

Weald,  207,  280,  288,  321,  362 
Wesley,  375 
Westbourne,  52,  53 
Westham,  309,  310 
Weston,  brothers,  369 
Westfield,  362,  363 
Wheatears,  281,  282 
Wheateley,  John,  306 
White  Hawk  Camp,  201 
White  Bock,  391 
Wight,  Isle  of,  53,  64,  69,  76 
Wilberforce,  154 
Wilfrid,  St.,  66-68,  83 
Wilkes,  John,  113,  253 
William  the  Conqueror,  52,  297, 

348-353 

William  Bufus,  337 
William  of  Newburgh,  348 
Willingdon,  286 


Willis,  27 

Wilmington,  288-290 
Wilson,  W.,  361 
Winchelsea,  363-375 
Winchester,  32 
Windmills,  223 
Windmill  Hill,  320 
(Wiston,  150, 151,  170) 
Withdean,  191 
Wittering,  East,  75 
Wittering,  West,  79,  80 
Wlencing,  son  of  ^lla,  22,  157 
Wolstonbury  Hill,  220 
Woodman,  Bichard,  242,  243 
Wordsworth,  96 
(Worth,  59) 
Worthing,  132, 133 
Wren,  45 
Wulfhere,  68 
Wulfram,  St.,  202 
Wyderyng  Harbour,  72 
Wykeham,  William  of,  335 

YAPTON,  100 
Yarmouth,  338,  339 
Young,  Arthur,  56,  128 
Ypres  Tower,  Bye,  382 

ZOUCH,  385 


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